Old Feelings and New Beginnings
by Alexander-Crossover
Summary: Taking placed after ending 3 of Star Fox Command. Krystal decides to end her relationship with Panther and return to Corneria to find Fox, only to discover that he had moved on.
1. Bittersweet Reunion

Old Feelings and New Beginnings

Just so I'm not sued by idiots, all star fox characters and merchandise belong to Nintendo, even the characters who never appeared in the games.

**Old Feelings and New Beginnings**

Chapter 1: Bittersweet Reunion

Krystal watched Corneria approaching through the front screen of her shuttle, she had left both the flight suit and the modified Wolfen she had piloted as part of the Star Wolf team back with them; once again she had changed her life because of a relationship.

It went back to her leaving Fox for Panther two years ago, she remembered exactly what she had said to him the day she left

'I'm sorry, Fox! I can't do this anymore. I'm going back to be with Panther and the rest of Star Wolf.'

She knew she had hurt him severely when she had told him that but it was the truth, Fox had kicked her off the team for her safety, something which had broken her heart, and she couldn't deny that in her time away from him, her feelings for him had waned considerably, even more so after she had met up with Star Wolf and Panther had comforted her. For the last two years since that day she had been with Star Wolf and had been seeing Panther, their relation ship never progressed any farther than the occasional date or evening meal. At first, Krystal assumed this was because Panther was busy, as she, Wolf, and Leon were with missions and other things such as ship and fighter maintenance. About one month ago she began to get suspicious when one night where she knew there was nothing planned for any of them and he still wasn't around, he returned later in the evening and had a late meal with her but she still questioned where he had been earlier. He had replied by saying.

"I was just some minor business in the city, nothing to worry your lovely azure head about." She did not ask the question again but two weeks ago, which was also two weeks after that event, she had seen him leaving the base they made their residence in on the industrial planet Eladard, once again, on a night where they had nothing planned for any of them. She had secretly followed him to a restaurant in the city where she had discovered him eating dinner with a feline woman. She had not been too concerned at first as she assumed she might be a family member, however distant, but at the end of the rendezvous she had seen them part with a passionate kiss and the promise to meet her again.

Krystal had then made it back to the base ahead of Panther and stopped him at the door, questioning him on his return. She confronted him about his date with the young feline, he had responded by saying, while holding a red rose in his right hand.

"Ah but there are so many charming women in this galaxy, how can deny any of them the Charm of Panther Caruso, surely you understand, fair Krystal." The blue vixen could do nothing but stare as Panther planted a kiss on her lips and moved pass her into the house. She stood still for almost a minute before she went back into the base. She sat down on the couch and thought things over; she had just realised that not only was Panther a ladies man he was, in her opinion, the worst kind of player, one who not only dated multiple women but could not stand to lose any of them and so kept it a secret unless they didn't mind. With all that on her mind she decided to sleep on the couch that night.

The next morning she woke up and ate breakfast in the kitchen. The first one awake after her was Wolf; he had come down just putting on the cybernetic attachment over his damage left eye, which allowed him to see through it. When he saw Krystal's disappointed face over the cereal she was eating he sat down across form her.

"So Krystal, what's eating you?" he asked. Though he never showed it in the field, he did care about his team-mates, showing sympathy was just hard for him. The cerulean fox cracked a smiled then sighed.

"Nothing, Wolf, it's just Panther."

"What about Panther?" Wolf inquired.

"He's such a jerk, that player doesn't even love me enough to just stick with me." Krystal seemed on the verge of tears.

"I'm not so sure he doesn't love you, but I always suspected he was doing something like this." Wolf replied. Krystal blinked.

"Then why didn't you ask him?"

"First, it was none of my business and it wasn't interfering with our mission, secondly I wasn't actually sure and I didn't want to run the risk of him leaving. So now that you know, what are you going to do Krys?" The blue vixen sighed.

"I don't know, but one thing's for sure I'm not staying here, not with that jackass Panther as a member of this team."

"So you're going to leave, fine just watch yourself out there." Krystal gaped.

"You're letting me go without a word of protest, why?"

"Because," Wolf said, leaning back in his chair, "If I were in your shoes I wouldn't want to stay here either, beside if I forced you to stay I wouldn't be a very good team leader. More to the point where will you go?"

"I don't know," Krystal rested her head in her hands on the table, "I don't know many people in this system beside your team and…Fox…" her voice trailed off.

"Then why not go back to him, he's probably been an emotional wreck for these last two years." Krystal gave wolf an odd look, as she sat back in her chair.

"Never thought you'd suggest that, I though you hated Fox's guts."

"I do, but after all this time I feel sorry for him and I kind of respect him, like his father. Of course if you ever told him that I would have to kill you," the wolf ended his line with a smirk.

"I guess that makes sense," Krystal replied, "But no matter where I go I'm only taking the things I came with, you can keep the fighter, flight suit, and those gifts Panther gave me." Krystal got up and left for her room. When she got to her room she took a suitcase from the closet and began packing her original belongings into it; among them were her staff and, after deciding she should take it back with her, the blue catsuit she had worn while she had flown with the StarFox Team.

When she got downstairs, Wolf passed her a credit disk saying.

"Use this to by a shuttle, if you're going to Corneria. The money won't be enough for a fast one and you'll need to stop on the way for food but it will give you some time to think about your decision, fox would be 31 now so think about if you really want to start a relationship again. Also I'll try to make sure that you can land on the planet without being stopped by the military." Krystal thanked him and left.

When she got to the city, having left the small bike she had ridden for anyone who could get it, she purchased a slow but sturdy shuttle and began her journey.

Now, two weeks later she had finally arrived at Corneria. This presented another problem, what if Fox wasn't on the planet, she didn't know what had happened in these last two years but all she knew that this was the last place that Fox had probably been and that it was the only planet he ever really stopped on for thing outside of business.

As Krystal approached the planet, she received a transmission from the planet security network.

"Unidentified T-class shuttle, state your name and business." Krystal sighed and responded.

"I am Krystal and I am here looking for an old friend, I don't want any trouble."

"Krystal, former member of Star Wolf…" she waited at the voice mulled over what she said, "You are cleared to proceed to the shuttle landing centre in Corneria City sector D, stay out of trouble." After the transmission ended Krystal sighed in relief; she'd expected to receive trouble from the authorities for being a member of Star Wolf but apparently this was Wolf at work. He must have informed them of her decision to leave the team, this gave her pause to think about how Leon was reacting to her departure, she didn't want to think about Panther.

After the re-entry she brought her shuttle down easily in the designated zone, she took her belongings and searched for a hotel to stay at finally settling on one called the Plaza near the centre of the city. When she checked in, she changed into something casual, a blue t-shirt and light blue jeans, and left her other items behind so she could search for Fox; it was just before 9:00am in Corneria City.

Three hours later at noon, it was becoming increasingly apparent that finding Fox was going to be next to impossible by just wandering and searching through the downtown area of Corneria City. Krystal stopped to eat lunch at an outdoor Café, where she and Fox used to eat frequently, at which she ordered a ham, cheese, and lettuce sandwich with mustard along with a bowl of vegetable soup and some orange juice. As she ate she reflected back to 3 years ago when she and Fox had been a couple. After the Aparoid invasion had ended and they had made it back to Corneria Fox had finally worked up the courage to tell her his feelings. For the next several months they were what amounted to a happy couple but Krystal could always sense that Fox's mind and heart were torn in some way that she couldn't figure out. Then about 8 months into their relationship, Fox had asked Krystal to step down form Star Fox for her own safety. This had broken her heart and she had run off and joined Star Wolf eventually succumbing to Panther's charms, until two weeks ago that is.

Now here she was again, the site of both her happiest moments in life, and the heart tearing moment that had changed it for what she now realised was the worse. She wondered for a moment if Fox was still alive. The thought that he might have committed suicide or been killed in a fight made her shutter mostly because if he had, she would have felt completely responsible for it.

"It's just over here," Krystal's ear's perked up; she recognized the voice but could hardly believe her luck.

"See I told you I would find it," It was Fox. Krystal got up and turned in the direction his voice had come from. When she saw Fox McCloud, alive and well, her heart lifted and she called out.

"Fox!" Startled, Fox turned to see Krystal standing next to a table at the Café.

"Krystal?" he said, his voice full of disbelief. Krystal started towards him when a female voice asked.

"Do you know her Fox?" Krystal's heart sank when she saw the women. She was a fennec vixen who looked about Fox's age with green eyes, and, like Fox, no real hair. What really made her heart sink was the wedding band on the fennec's left ring finger and the fact that she was obviously pregnant, and quite far into it by how her belly stuck out and the maternity clothes she was wearing. Fox gulped and said.

"Fara, this is Krystal. Krystal, this is my wife, Fara Phoenix-McCloud."

Krystal felt like she was going to cry.


	2. Past and Present

Well this is my first attempt at a Star Fox Fic so please tell me how I'm doing

Well this is my first attempt at a Star Fox Fic so please tell me how I'm doing. But first I want to clarify some things.

I don't hate Fox/Krystal nor do I prefer Krystal over Fara or Fara over Krystal as a love interest for Fox, this story just seemed that it might be likely to happen after the third ending of Star Fox Command. After all, as you'll find out in this chapter, Fara left Fox's life due to events out of her control and Krystal chose to leave him for someone else. Also I'm certain that Fara's maiden name is pronounced "Fennecs".

I have never played Star Fox Command so I am just going by what I read on wikipedia and on GameFAQs about the endings.

I know I skipped some details and had some oddities in the last chapter but that was for cliff-hanger effect, there will be more details in this chapter which should explain almost everything.

I just imagine that Wolf would have gained some respect for Fox after what's he's been through, if through nothing else than through pity. Also he has to be caring towards him team mates off of the battlefield or they might leave him and he wouldn't really be a good leader if he wasn't.

I am going on the basis that a credit on Corneria is roughly worth 10 cents Canadian.

Chapter Two: Past and Present

Krystal managed to hold back tears and invited Fox and Fara to sit with her; after consulting his wife Fox agreed and while they waited for their food, they exchanged conversation. Krystal explained what had happened with Panther and why she'd come to Corneria and by the time she was done, Fox and Fara's food had arrived. Krystal finished her meal in silence while the couple started in on their food. The blue vixen couldn't help but noticed not only their looks towards one another but she could sense their feelings towards each other, she knew they were in love and that she could never hope to win Fox back from this Fara Phoenix-McCloud.

When they had all finished eating, Fox, who was wearing a white t-shirt and grey shorts, decided that it was time to explain everything that he could to Krystal.

"Krystal," Fox began, "I know after what you've told us that seeing me with Fara must be a blow to your morale, but a lot of things happened in the last two years. But still this goes back a little farther. Nine years before we met I met Fara, she's the one who introduced my team to the Arwing class Starfighters and after a while, we fell in love and began seeing each other. She would have joined the team if she didn't have obligations as the lead test pilot and the head of space combat training at the academy at the time.

"One year later Andross tried to take over this system and my Star Fox team was called in the stop him. When we arrived in Corneria city, we had the option of either attacking a giant battle robot that was trying to destroy the city, or going after the main carrier of the attack fleet, we chose the latter option.

"After we returned from Venom after defeating Andross and collecting our payment, we learned that before the Cornerian military managed to destroy the robot that it had levelled a substantial part of the city, including the building where Fara had been during the invasion. I presumed she was dead and I left the planet, I drifted for the next eight years until Sauria." Fara then spoke up.

"When the building I was in was attacked I lost consciousness. When I woke up I was in the hospital; I don't remember much but I do remember that I had broken my left arm, right ankle, and left femur, had a punctured lung, a slight concussion, and had lost a lot of blood from numerous cuts and bruises. The doctors said it was a miracle that I survived long enough to make it to the hospital. I do remember that my most prominent thoughts when lying in that bed where about where Fox was and if he was alright. When I found out he left assuming I was dead I tried to get in contact with him, but he never returned to Corneria long enough for me to see him, I pretty much gave up hope when I heard he might be seeing you, Krystal."

"I see," Krystal said, she understood a little more now, "but how did you two meet up again?" Fox sighed and leaned back in his chair, careful not to tip it over.

"That's a chapter of my life that I never want to remember, but unless I tell you now a lot of stuff won't make sense."

--Flashback--

Two months had passed since Krystal left Fox to be with Panther and Star Wolf and Fox was a wreck in many ways. Currently he was sitting in a bar in Corneria City late in the evening and as had been the usual for him these last few months, he was getting drunk.

After Krystal left him for Panther, Fox had been heartbroken. His team mates and friends had tried to reconcile him but had all eventually either got too annoyed with him and left, like Falco, or realized that Fox didn't seem to want to be reconciled. Eventually he was left with just ROB and the heavy ship carrier that he had been calling home, and like some people, he turned to the only freely available material thing that he thought could help him, alcohol.

Now two months since those events he was still an emotional wreck.

"Hey barkeep," he said, obviously drunk, "get me another drink."

"I think you've had enough, and your tab is well past due mister McCloud." Fox raised his head to complain more when a glass ashtray nearly hit him in the head. He turned to see a tiger and a monkey arguing.

"Hey, you wanna mess with me!" he shouted and he started towards them, within moments there was a bar fight between the three.

--

Fara Phoenix was out for a late evening drive to help clear her head. Over a decade had passed since she saw Fox and she had long since given up trying to find him again. She had had nothing more than short flings or single dates. Sighing she parked her car outside of a bar she had been approaching. She picked up her purse and entered the building hoping to find someone or something interesting inside.

When she entered she got quite a shock as a beer bottle exploded on the wall just next to her face, a bar fight was in progress and everyone in the bar was keeping their distance from the three brawling creatures. A lucky punch from the tiger knocked the fox in the fight to his back, leaving him unconscious. Trying to be kind, Fara went over to the unconscious fox, when she realized who it was she gasped.

"Fox McCloud!" though he was quite a bit older she recognized him. When she looked up she saw that the barkeep, a Doberman, was about to dial the phone. Moving quickly she asked.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling the police," the canine barkeep replied, "those three have caused me too much trouble."

"Please let the fox go, I'll take care of him."

"Sorry, but Fox owes me 1587 credits for the last two months he spent in here and his tab is long past due." Hearing this Fara quickly reached into her purse and pulled out her credit card and a credit disk. She quickly transferred 2100 credits onto the disk and handed it to the barkeep.

"That could cover his tab; the extra is for you to keep quiet. I'll take him to my house for the night," Fara said.

"Fine, just make sure if he comes here again, he doesn't cause this much trouble." Fara nodded and went back over to the unconscious Fox McCloud. It was fortunate that Fara regularly exercised at a gym for she was strong enough to at least half-carry, half-drag the fox out to her car. She managed to get him into the back and strap him in before getting in the front and driving back to her apartment. On the way she noticed the scent of alcohol coming from Fox; she began to realize just what the barkeep had meant by two months. She wondered why he was even out here and not out in space on his ship. She had tried to avoid any media surrounding Fox so as to try and forget him after she heard he was seeing a blue vixen named Krystal even going so far as to just hide from the Anglar invasion some time ago. She sighed, hoping she would get some answers in the morning when he woke up.

--

Fox stirred into wakefulness with a massive headache, not to mention other pain from the fight.

'Oh the justice of a hangover,' he thought, wondering where he was. He opened his eyes and immediately he noticed one thing, under the sheets of the bed he was in he had no clothes on. A million thoughts, none of them nice, went through his head in that instant but a voice from the door brought him back to reality.

"So you're finally awake." Fox turned to see Fara standing in the doorway; she was wearing a blue unmarked t-shirt and jeans. Fox blinked, and then rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.

"F-Fara! I can't believe it, I thought you were dead!" Despite why he was in her home, the fennec couldn't help smiling.

"Yes I am alive. So how are you doing?" Fox suddenly remembered that he was naked underneath the sheets.

"Umm…I'm fine. I was drunk last night so did we…" he blushed, his voice trailing off. Fara couldn't help but snicker at this.

"No Fox, you were knocked out in a bar fight and I paid off your tab, plus a little extra, to keep the barkeep from reporting you to the police and a brought you back here; I let you use my bed and I slept on my couch. I took you're clothes to get washed and I put them in the dryer some time ago; they should be done in a few minutes. So," Fara sat down in a wooden chair next to the bed, "maybe we should do some catching up. You first, what have you been up to in this last decade?" Fox began his tale, the eight years of drifting were passed over quite quickly but he described the events on Sauria and of his involvement in the Aparoid and Anglar invasions. All the while Fara noticed that Fox barely mentioned Krystal, the vixen that she heard she had been dating so she asked him where she was. Fox's faced changed then and he started crying. This surprised Fara as she had only seen him cry once before, when he brought up the subject of his dead parents, Fox stopped and explained.

"She joined the Star Fox Team after my adventures on Sauria, and we became close. After we defeated the Aparoids I told her that I loved her and we began dating. Almost a year later I asked her to leave the team, for her safety and she ran away, crying. I know I was hard on her but I couldn't have lived with myself if she died under my command. During the Anglar invasion I found out that she had joined Star Wolf and begun a relationship with Panther Caruso. Two months ago, after we dealt with the invasion, she left me to stay with Panther and Star Wolf, breaking my heart," the fox's eyes clouded up again, "I've been a wreck for these two months, I guess his depression would eventually get me in trouble. Thanks for helping me Fara, sorry to be a trouble to you. So how have you been?" Fara sighed; she understood why Fox was so depressed now.

"My life hasn't been that eventful. I was in the hospital for two months after they pulled me from the wreckage of the building where I was during Andross' attack and I tried to find you afterwards, but you never came back to Corneria long enough for me to see you. When I heard you were seeing Krystal I tried to avoid anything to do with you, to avoid heartache, until I picked you up last night. That's all, I quit my job as pilot instructor to keep from seeing you and I've just drifted between jobs and dates since then." She sighed then stood up, "I better go check on your clothes they should be dry by now. I'll be gone for a bit so just stay there until I get back."

Fara left and Fox was once again alone in her room. He reflected on what she had said to him. After he thought that Fara had died he had never even tried to look for her; he felt guilty that he had caused her so much misery but truthfully he had completely forgotten about her until that morning.

As he lay back waiting for Fara to return a crazy idea popped into his head, he thought about it for a bit then decided he would go for it. By this time Fara returned carrying his clothes. She set them on the chair she had been sitting in earlier.

"Get dressed and meet me in the living room, I'll have some food ready by then." She left and Fox got out of the bed and proceeded to get dressed; his clothes consisted of a pair of grey pants and a green short-sleeve shirt, not to mention his undergarments.

What qualified as brunch with Fara was quite simple, just some pot noodles and orange juice. They ate in silence at the table in Fara's apartment's living room; when they finished Fox helped her with the brunch and the previous day's dishes. While she was washing and he was drying and putting away the dishes he decided to pitch his crazy idea to her.

"Hey Fara," he said.

"Yes Fox?"

"Want to join Star Fox?" Fara almost dropped the plate she was passing to him but Fox took it before she dropped it. Pausing for a moment Fara stared at him.

"What?"

"Do you want to join Star Fox; you can wait until we're done with these dishes to answer." Fara was silent as they finished cleaning and putting away the dishes. When they were finished, they sat down on the couch and Fox explained to her why he was asking.

"I've been emotional wreck for these last two months since Krystal left me, and now I guess I've finally realised that being a drunkard isn't solving anything. If it wasn't for you I'd probably be in jail now moreover the Great Fox and Rob are the only real things I've been able to depend on at this time. Maybe its time to start taking missions again and get my life moving, I just wanted to know if you'd be willing to help me." Fara thought on this for a moment before finally saying.

"Alright, but you have to do something for me first."

"What?" Fara held up her index, middle, and ring fingers.

"Three dates, I want you to go on three dates with me, tomorrow and both days after that. After that tell me how you feel about me and that will ultimately affect my decision." Fox was surprised by this but he quickly agreed to the condition, agreeing to pick her up at her apartment on all three dates. Shortly thereafter, he departed so he could prepare for the next three nights. Fara watched him leave through her apartment window thinking to herself.

'Fox, I wonder if any of your old feelings for me are left.' She sat down thinking things over.

'Fox, I've tried to forget you but part of me won't let you go, I just hope that these next three days will spark something. Now that I've met you again I don't know if I can go on without you.' Fara sighed deciding to drive downtown to get something new to wear for the date.

--

The following night…

Fox drove up to Fara's apartment building in the car he had rented, it was a simple blue four seater car, nothing fancy but well maintained so it looked decent enough. Fox wore a dress shirt and jacket as well as dress pants none of which he had worn in some time; they still fit him well enough. He had arrived a little early so as not to be late so he waited until Fara came out of the building. He was impressed to say the least; Fara was wearing a light blue dress that went down to her ankles and high-heeled shoes in the same colour. Trying to a gentleman he got out and opened the door for her.

"So where are we going tonight?" Fara asked.

"I managed to get us reservations at Chez Song; I think I owe you for covering my tab."  
Fara blinked as Fox began to drive, it was not the best place in town but Chez Song was still pretty high class. She thought that maybe Fox was taking this more seriously than she thought. The night was fairly uneventful but people at the restaurant who knew of Fox kept whispering about the two of them. Because of her sensitive ears, Fara was able to pick up on one or more of the conversations, which made her smile, particularly at one who commented on fox finding a new girlfriend after his last two months of depression. The dinner passed mostly in silence with both Fara and Fox both asking the other how their meal was. After the meal fox picked up the check, along with quite a tip for their waiter, and drove her home. Before getting out Fara turned to Fox and said.

"Thanks for supper, Fox. So what are we doing tomorrow?"

"I was thinking a movie tomorrow night, see you then Fara," Fox drove back to his ship. Fara watched him drive off and a smile crept across her face. She knew that Fox had enjoyed himself so there was hope for her after all. She turned and walked inside.

Fox returned the rental car to the dealership and walked the rest of the way back to the Great Fox. While he was getting ready to sleep after he arrived he realised that he was actually happy for the first time since Krystal left him.

'Thanks for helping me out Fara,' he thought, 'I'm glad I got to see you again.' Shortly thereafter he went to bed, and fell asleep, his dreams for once not haunted by Krystal's departure but filled with thoughts of Fara.

--

The next day Fox chose to walk to Fara's apartment to pick her up and to walk her to the movie theatre; both were dressed casually. It took them some time to choose what to see but Fara finally chose a romantic movie. During the movie she removed the armrest between her and Fox's seats and snuggled up next to him, his fur giving her a warm feeling, both in her body and her heart; at this Fox found himself involuntarily putting his right arm around Fara and holding her close. Fox found, somewhat surprisingly, that having her close gave him a warm feeling.

After the movie, Fox walked Fara all the way up to her apartment. At the door Fara paused and took Fox's hands.

"Thanks for the date," she said, "I really enjoyed it. I'll pick you up tomorrow for a picnic ok?" Before Fox could reply, she gave him a quick kiss on his cheek and turned inside her apartment, closing the door behind her. Fox was dumbstruck by this action and as he walked back to the Great Fox, he was given time to reflect on Fara, not just these last two days but their relationship over a decade prior.

For some reason that kiss seemed to open a sluice gate for his memories, he could remember everything about his previous relationship with Fara: the dates, the flirting on duty, how much he had cared for her, and last but not least how devastated he'd been when he thought she was dead. Fox made it back to his ship he looked it over.

"Maybe its time I forgot about Krystal completely and started over, again." He spoke to no one but himself, "But this time, I won't make the same mistake I made with her."

--

It was late in the morning when Fara arrived to pick up Fox; she had traveled on foot and was wearing a backpack with the blanket and food for the picnic in it. She took the short time she waited for him to look over the Great Fox. She had done some research the previous night and knew that the one with which she was familiar was gone but this one looked more like a carrier than a battleship, which its predecessor resembled. She was wearing a sky blue skirt and t-shirt today and as she watched Fox approaching, she saw that he was wearing a white t-shirt and grey shorts. Fox came over to Fara.

"So, Fara, shall we?" he asked.

"Yes, let's," Fara replied and the set off on foot for the park outside of Corneria City. The 20 minute walk was mostly uneventful until Fara tripped on a loose stone in the path about 13 minutes into the walk and almost fell, until Fox caught her. Fara blushed and the red fox said.

"Maybe I should carry that backpack now, you've been carrying it the whole time." Fox lifted the pack from the fennec's shoulders and took it upon his own; for the rest of the walk Fara held Fox's left hand in her right.

When they arrived at the park, which was mostly devoid of trees and was quite bumpy, they set up the blanket and took the food out form the backpack. For the picnic Fara had made: ham and cheese sandwiches, a vegetable salad, and two slices of leftover apple pie that had been in her fridge. Though the picnic proceeded fairly well, neither of them noticed the storm clouds gathering in the sky. While they were both eating, they spoke little, as both were deep in thought. Fara was wondering if Fox was harbouring the same feeling for her that she had for him whereas Fox was considering what the future held for him; the previous day he had done some preparation for his upcoming missions in space, namely selling the improvements to his Arwing II and purchasing a second with the same abilities and upgrades. Another thing on his mind was his personal question from the previous night, about how he was going to proceed with Fara after this.

While they were both lost in thought they both absentmindedly reached for the last sandwich in the bag and, as could be expected, their hands met. Fox noticed this first and withdrew his hand saying,

"You have it Fara," his face reddening somewhat. Fara noticed this and blushed as she ate the last sandwich.

'I can't believe this, I'm 30 years old and I'm acting like a teenage girl on her first date, with the hottest guy in her class.' She was about to say something when a drop of water hit her left ear.

'Oh no,' she thought looking skywards noticing for the first time the thick cloud cover, 'I should have checked the weather before today.'

"Fox, we better get moving, it's going to star raining hard," even as she said this, the rain began falling faster. Fox noticed and helped her pack up the remaining food, which was just the uneaten pieces of pie, and he hoisted the Backpack over his shoulders. They had barely gone 20 steps when the clouds opened up and the rain came down in a massive downpour. Both Foxes ran for a short way until they realised that there was little reason to, as they were already soaking wet. As they walked back in the direction of the Great Fox, Fox noticed that Fara looked as though she was crying.

"Fara is something wrong?" he asked.

"I'm sorry I didn't see this coming. I should have checked the weather this morning so this wouldn't happen." Fox stopped and took her hand.

"Hey, Fara, it's alright, these things happen so don't worry about it." Fara smiled and blinked away the tears that had begun to form in her eyes.

"Thanks Fox. Do you remember what I said you had to do after our third date? I want you to tell me how you feel about me now, please be completely honest with me." Fox smirked at this and pulled her close as though embracing her.

"How bout I show you," before Fara could respond Fox pulled her close to him in a full embrace and kissed her passionately on the lips. Fara was amazed and at first too stunned to do anything but stand there, but she melted back into a return kiss with him, putting her hands at the back of his head as she couldn't put them around his back while he was wearing the backpack. They stood there in the rain with their lips pressed together for almost a minute before they broke apart. Fara's eyes seemed to twinkle in the rain as she stared into Fox's eyes.

"Fara, I love you. Please promise you'll stay with me from now on." Fara didn't need to say anything; she just cried tears of happiness and Fox understood. He smiled, "Com'on, we'd better get back to the Great Fox before we catch colds. Fox put his arm around Fara's shoulders as they walked the rest of the way.

--

Several minutes later, Fara sat on the couch in the main living area of the Great Fox wrapped in a blanket to warm up. Her fur was messy as she had dried herself with a towel and had not bothered to clean up otherwise; she was only wearing her underwear and bra, which she had dried quickly beforehand while her own clothes dried in the Great Fox's laundry room. Fox came in only wearing his shorts and drying his head with a towel. He put the towel down and sat on Fara's left, who blushed as she was barely clothed; Fox smiled when he noticed this.

"So," Fara said, "what you said back there…"

"I meant every word," Fox said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Fara blushed and Fox leaned back, putting his arm around her.

"After you gave me that kiss yesterday, all of my memories of you came flooding back. I can remember everything about our previous relationship," he turned to look at the downpour outside the ship, "So will you join me?" She smiled at him and snuggled close.

"Of course I'll join you, Fox. I love you and would never leave you."

--

Fara spent the night with Fox and the next day Fara moved out of her apartment and into the Great Fox. She and Fox agreed to share a room and a bed; it was as though the years they had been apart had never happened.

For his part, Fox was perfectly happy with his life for the first time since Krystal left him; he was in love again and he was ready to start out as a mercenary. Fara was also very happy, she had once again found Fox the only man she had ever loved, and was ready to start out anew. After Fara had unpacked just after lunch Fox got Rob to take the Great Fox into orbit. Fara and Fox stood on the bridge and stared out the main window; they could see Corneria with stars and other planets above it, from their perspective. Fox put his arm around Fara and asked.

"Like the view?"

"I love it; I haven't been in space for ages, thank you for this. So now what do we do?"

"We wait for a mission then…"

"Fox, incoming transmission from near the asteroid field, it is a distress signal." Rob's voice overwrote the couple's talk. Fox's eyes took on a more serious tone and he finished what he was saying, while moving forwards towards Rob.

"We figure out what's going on and go to it. Let's here the signal Rob."

"Affirmative, I am patching it through." The signal was full of static, which was expected considering it was a distress signal.

"This is George Phoenix of the Phoenix Freight Service flagship _P.S.S. Tungsten_. We are under attack by the Shark Teeth Pirates at point 539 near the asteroid field; we are carrying important cargo for Space Dynamics Inc. request immediate help from any Cornerian Fighters or Mercenaries receiving this distress call. Repeat, this is George Phoenix…"

Both Foxes listened to the call, Fara's eyes widened.

"Father!" she said.

"So your father is in trouble," Fox said. He smirked and turned to the robot. "Rob set a course for the location mentioned in the distress signal, Fara and I will be getting our Arwings ready for battle." He motioned to the Fennec, "Let's go Fara."

"Right," they both ran down the corridors to the main hangar bay as Rob took the ship at maximum speed in the direction of the asteroid field. When they arrived they each climbed into their Arwings. When they made it too their cockpits, Fox said across the bay.

"Do you still remember how to fly one of these things?"

"You forget, I was the test pilot for the Arwing back before you flew one, besides these controls look almost identical to the first Arwing so just worry about yourself out there," Fara replied as their canopies lowered.

"Alright, just remember I'm still the team leader out here."

--

Mark Felis was an orange tiger and the leader of the Shark Tooth Pirates. He sat in his custom ship, the Tiger Fang, which looked like an old Cornerian F-4 Phantom and like all of his group's ships had the insignia of a red mouth with shark teeth on the nose, circling the _Tungsten_ along with the other 5 pilots of his pirate group like vultures circling an animal in its death throes. The freighter in question was heavily damaged; all of its laser defence turrets had been destroyed as well as half of its engines. Only a few more hits to its engines and it would be dead in the water. Mark could see this and it made him quite overconfident. He signalled to his men.

"Alright boys and girls, this ship's on its last legs so let's wrap this up and then the cargo's ours." Mark circled a couple more times before a large grey blip appeared on his radar. He glanced at the blip before signalling his group's frigate, aptly named the _Shark's Tooth_.

"Hey, what's that ship that just showed up?"

"One second, sir… Sir, it's the Great Fox, Star Fox is here!" Mark was a little confused.

"Star Fox, I thought they were washed up," he smirked, "all right, target the Great Fox, we'll take down McCloud then we will take the cargo.

--

"Fox, we have arrived at the battle site."

"Alright Rob, Fara, are you ready?" Fox asked. Fara's grip on her controls tightened.

"I'm as ready as I'm ever be, Fox."

"Then let's Rock n. Roll." Both Arwing IIs blasted out of the Great Fox's hangar and into the fray. At first Fara was nervous, but like riding a bicycle her piloting skill came back to her in an instant once she was in space again. She was able to force one of the fighter's to pull a drastic dodge move by detonating one of her nova bombs in front of it. In an instant, Fara was behind the fighter her Arwing's laser tearing through the fighter's engines and destroying it, giving Fara the surge of confidence she needed now that she was back in a fighter cockpit.

--

George Phoenix was in his mid 50s but had still insisted on leaving his wife, Christine Phoenix, to come on this important cargo run. He had been extremely worried since the attack on his ship began as he was sure that the ship would have been captured when the escort fighters and defence turrets had been destroyed. But when the attack on his ship ceased he was somewhat confused.

"What's going on?" he asked. The bridge was in less of a mess than would be expected, though there were some panels hanging open with wires dangling from them, the attack had mostly been on the freighter's turrets and engines.

"Sir, another ship has entered the field, the scanners are a little damaged but we've confirmed that it's the Great Fox."

"Fox McCloud," Mr. Phoenix's voice was a mixture of relief and slight contempt, "I thought he quit this business. Never mind, just keep the ship on course for Corneria; we'll discuss that mercenary's payment afterwards."

--

Fox and Fara had each shot down two of the pirate's fighters when Fox noticed the frigate _Shark's Tooth_ moving to attack the freighter's remaining engines.

"Rob, fire the missiles at that frigate, we have to protect the _Tungsten_ at all costs!" Fox shouted over his headset.

"Affirmative, firing missiles," the carrier launched its missiles at the _Shark's Tooth_. The pirate frigate had no time to dodge the missiles as they impacted on its front end. The though the _Shark's Tooth_ was by no means a poorly built ship, but numerous battles had made the ship's frame weaker and the explosions caused the ship to tear itself apart. Mark's only remaining wingman was stunned by this, and that cost him his life as Fara's laser destroyed his fighter. Mark saw this and flew into a rage.

"You bastards, I'll get you!" His and Fox's fighters began circling each other, each looking for shots that could destroy the other. Fox signalled to Fara.

"Hey Fara, leave this one to me, just make sure your father's ship is ok."

"Alright just be careful, Fox."

"I will," Fox cut the transmission off and began to seriously pursue the fighter.

"I'll get you, and then I will get more men and start raiding again," Mark shouted to Fox over the comm. link. Fox chose not to respond but instead did a quick U-Turn and began flying away from Mark; the tiger chased after him and landed a few hits. He thought he was winning until Fox did a summersault getting behind him and fired a nova bomb, disintegrating his ship.

'He wasn't so tough; better make sure Mr Phoenix is alright.'

--

"Sir, the pirate ships have all been destroyed, one of the Arwing IIs is hailing us." The report relieved George Phoenix and he replied.

"Let him speak, put it on the main comm. screen." The operator gave his acknowledgement and a moment later, Fox's face appeared on the screen.

"Mr. Phoenix, long time no see, glad to see you're alright."

"Fox McCloud, I have seen you in about 10 years. I assume you want some compensation for this." George's voice had some acid in it but Fox chose to ignore the tone.

"That's right. Sorry it took so long to get here. Me and my wing mate will land in your ship's docking bay, meet us just outside the hangar, don't worry, the Great Fox will cover you while you return to Corneria." Fox's face vanished and George Phoenix sighed.

"Guess I'd better go. Let the Arwings land and then continue on course, I'm going to meet Fox at the hangar." Mr Phoenix then departed for the _Tungsten's_ docking bay. He stood outside the door on the opposite side of the hallway; as he heard the two fighters landing he wondered who Fox's wing mate was. Possibly Falco or Krystal, but he knew that they were with other groups or doing their own thing. He got his answer when the door opened and Fox and Fara walked through holding hands.

"Fara, you're Fox's wing mate?"

"Yes, father, I am." Mr. Phoenix was stunned, his daughter's cheerful response was something he had not heard in years, since she had been separated from Fox she had been quite depressed and to see her happy again filled him with happiness; the way she was holding Fox's hand made him realise just how close they had become since they had met again. George smiled.

"Come with me to the cargo area, you can explain along the way." They did so. Mr. Phoenix listened as Fox related what had happened to him in the decade since the end of the Lylat Wars; though he frowned at some of the things he had done, George was glad that Fox and Fara were happy together, as they had been so long ago.

"So Mr. Phoenix, what exactly are you transporting that the pirates were so eager to get their hands on?" Fox asked. As he asked this they arrived at the cargo area.

"Something new for Space Dynamics let me show you," George entered the code into the door and it slid open.

"An Arwing," Fox said as he stared at the ship.

"The Arwing Mk III actually, this is just the prototype but the blueprints and parts for about half a dozen are here, along with notes that list how to fix the bugs. We also have the blueprints and parts for two Landmaster Mk IIIs and two submarines based on Slippy's Blue Marine."

The Arwing Mk III looked a lot like the Arwing flown by General Peppy Hare but with some minor alterations, such as the fact that the G-Diffusers were altered somewhat as well as the barrels for the ship's three lasers and the Nova Bomb launcher. Fox walked over to the ship and placed a hand on the white body of the Arwing.

"So about your payment," George was cut off by Fox.

"I have an idea, how about when we get back to Corneria you help me convince Space Dynamics to build me a new Dreadnaught Class battlecruiser and possibly get the latest models of Arwings, Landmaster, and this new submarine. I want to get the Star Fox Team back on its feet and that would cover this rescue job." Mr. Phoenix and Fara stared at Fox for a moment. George scratched his head.

"That's a pretty tall order, but considering the proposed power of the new Arwing model and how you were able to keep it safe, I think I might be able to convince them."

"Thank you Mr. Phoenix," Fox said and he turned and moved to rejoin the two fennecs.

The rest of the journey back to Corneria was uneventful and when they arrived they were greeted by the president of Space Dynamics inside the company's main office building. After some debate and discussion George, Fox, and Fara were able to convince the president to commission the upgraded Dreadnaught, which Fox planned to call the Great Fox 3, and the fighters, tanks, and submarines that Star Fox would need once they started taking missions again. In exchange Fox agreed to run some patrols at a standard wage with his team in order to keep supply freighters transporting goods for Space Dynamics safe from space pirate raids that had been increasing recently since the Anglar invasion had been averted. Fox agreed but said first he had to go see an old friend and he left, leaving Fara to talk things over with her father.

"So I see you've found Fox again and I can tell by the way you two are acting that you've fallen in love all over again, is that true?"

"Yes it is, father," Fara sighed, despite Fox having saved her in the past her father had never really approved of their relationship or of Fox's mercenary lifestyle, feeling that it was too risky, even more so than military life. Fara hoped that her father's opinion of Fox would change; her mother was of a different opinion and she had been more disappointed when he had left her after he thought she was dead.

"I see, nothing I say will change that," George put his hand on his daughter's shoulder, "then I guess you two have my blessing." Fara was momentarily speechless.

"Do you mean it, dad?"

"Of course, I see that there is no way you two will want to leave each other. Besides, you're our only child, and your mother and I aren't getting any younger, we aren't trying to hurry you along but we would like some grandchildren before we pass on, and your clock is ticking, so please, just try to settle down with him at some point before its too late for any of us." The elder fennec's words touched his daughter and she replied.

"Don't worry daddy, I won't let Fox go, now that I've found him again."

--

Fox stood outside the Cornerian military GHQ building.

"I haven't been here in a while," Fox fished an ID card that Peppy had given him out of his pocket, "I hope this still works." He approached the entrance, where two dog soldiers stood on either side of the double doors. Fox held up the card and both soldiers saluted as he made his way inside.

The base layout was familiar to Fox, as he had been there numerous times earlier in his life. He followed the familiar route to the General's office and when he arrived he found his old friend going over something on his desk. Fox smiled and said.

"Hey, old timer!" Peppy was startled to say the least.

"What do you mean old timer!" though his voice was laced with some anger, when Peppy saw it was Fox who had spoken his voice softened, "Fox, it's good to see you again, it looks like you're finally back on your feet."

"Yeah," Fox said, taking the seat on the opposite side of his old friend's desk, "I've found someone else after my break up with Krystal; or rather I've found someone again." Fox leaned back and stared at the ceiling, "I've found Fara Phoenix and I don't think I could be happier."

"I'm happy for you Fox; I thought that you would never break out of that state of depression."

"Thanks, General, but that's not why I came here. I want to let you know that Star Fox is going to be back in action soon enough, but with only myself and Fara, we won't last long in any battle. To the point, I want to ask if you have anyone on base who might consider joining me." Peppy took a moment to digest this and finally replied.

"I just may have two pilots who can help you, if you'll follow me I'll take you to their quarters on this base." Fox nodded and got up to follow Peppy as he led him through the hallways of the base. As Peppy was the Commander in Chief of all Cornerian forces no one even tried to stop them as they made their way towards the destination that Peppy had in mind. Eventually they arrived at a door in the soldier's quarters' hallway. Peppy knocked and there was some movement behind the door; a moment later a white cocker spaniel in her early-mid 20s slid the door open.

"General Hare, what brings you here?" she asked.

"Something which may interest you and Ensign Lynx, Ensign Spaniel, please permit me and my friend to come in." Ensign Spaniel moved aside to allow Peppy and Fox to enter. Fox took a moment to observe the room, it was a standard military pilot's quarters with two beds on either side of the room, a dresser/bookcase opposite the door, and everything was in pale blue colour. On the bed to the left of the door a lynx of about the same age as Ensign Spaniel sat, her back propped up against the wall, reading a novel, she looked up from her book when Fox and Peppy entered.

"Fox, allow me to introduce Miyu Lynx, and Fay Spaniel," Peppy said. Fay was the white cocker spaniel who had greeted them, she had large ears that went down to her shoulders, she had blue eyes, her chest was of average size, and she wore a red bow to keep her hair back on the back of her head; all of this made her look a little younger than she actually was. Miyu was an orange lynx with black stripes, her hair was a short military cut, though not unnoticeable her chest was smaller than normal, and her eyes were brown; unlike Fay Miyu appearance made her look quite mature, and serious, although not too much to enjoy a good joke. What Fox noticed mostly was that one of the stripes on her forehead was shaped like an arrow and pointed down at her face; both were wearing standard military uniform for the space division of Corneria. Peppy continued.

"Both of them graduated from the pilot academy here last week and were both tied for top of their class, however," his voice took on a slightly more serious tone, "As things are getting somewhat out of hand on our space combat division they have not had the chance to fly in actual combat, and might not get the chance for quite a while. It's a waste of talent so what I'm offering to you three is that Miyu and Fay both join Star Fox, I know from experience that you two will be accepted as long as your piloting skills aren't lacking." Miyu smiled and bookmarked her book before closing it.

"Sounds like a good idea, so this is the famous Fox McCloud," Miyu stood up and offered her right hand to Fox, "Nice to meet you." Fox took her hand and shook it saying.

"Same to you, I assume that you are Miyu."

"Got it in one." Next Fay offered her hand to Fox; she had a gentle smile and said.

"Pleased to meet you Mr. McCloud," Fox shook her hand as well.

"Please to meet you as well Fay, both of you welcome to Star Fox, now get your stuff together and meet outside the front of the base, and please wear something more casual." As both women began to pack, Fox and Peppy stepped into hall and began to leave the base.

"So, Peppy, do they posses any other skills I should be aware of?"

"Well," Peppy mused over it a moment, "Fay is quite a skilled mechanic and fighter engineer while Miyu is a good planner and strategist and knows quite a lot about the Lylat system and battle tactics; she may not look it but she is a real bookworm off duty despite her tomboyish personality. I'm sure they will be great additions to your team." Fox nodded and smiled.

"I'm sure they will as well, thank you Peppy, I'll take them back to the Great Fox when they're ready. We'll be taking missions in about four months when our new ships are ready, until then we will be running missions for Space Dynamics" The two old friends then Parted ways with Peppy heading back to his office and Fox heading out of the building. Fox waited outside for a few minutes before Miyu and Fay both came out of the building. Fay was wearing a short orange skirt and an orange t-shirt and was dragging a suitcase with wheels behind her whereas Miyu was wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt and was carrying a suitcase, which was larger than Fay's, which Fox guessed held her books.

"Well," he said, "I guess we should get going, it's quite a walk so let's get moving."

"Yes sir," Fay replied. While they walked, Fox found himself staring at Miyu's arrow stripe on her forehead. Eventually the Lynx asked.

"Is there something interesting about my head?"

"Oh sorry, Miyu, it's just that that stripe on your forehead reminds me of my friend, Bill Grey. He usually wears a helmet with an arrow that faces his face, just like that stripe on your forehead."

"I see," Miyu said.

"So anyways, I should let you know that for the next four months we will be flying patrols on a standard wage for Space Dynamics to keep the shipping lanes safe. After that we will have a new dreadnaught class battleship, the Great Fox 3, two Landmaster Mk. IIIs, two Blue Marine Rs, and six Arwing Mk IIIs."

"Hey Fox, when we get to Space Dynamics I want to try something, I have an idea for a specialized Arwing that Miyu and I could use but I just need time to design it," Fay's eyes had lit up with what Miyu described as her 'engineering look'. Fox shrugged.

"We'll run it by the president and chief designer, hopefully they won't mind."

--

When they arrived back at base, Fox decided to introduce Fara and the two new team members, Fara met them just outside the building and Fox went to stand by her as he made the introductions.

"Fara let me introduce our two newest team members, Fay Spaniel,"

"Nice to meet you," the white Spaniel said.

"And Miyu Lynx."

"Hey," Miyu raised her free left hand in greeting.

"Nice to meet you too, I'm Fara Phoenix, Fox's uh…"

"Girlfriend," Fox finished her sentence causing the Fennec to blush, "Now, Fay, I believe you had something to discuss with the President concerning our order."

"Of Course, if you don't mind, Miyu and Fara, I'm going with Fox to discuss this, could you take my suitcase to my new room please?" Fay asked.

"Sure, I guess so," Fara said. As Fay and Fox turned to enter the building, Fara took Fay's suitcase and began to pull it towards the Great Fox. Fara turned to Miyu and asked.

"So, how long have you known Fay?"

"Since high school," Miyu replied, "we've been close since our high school years but competitive when it comes to our piloting skills. And before you ask we're both straight, we just haven't found anyone who is right for either of use yet." Fara blinked.

"I wasn't going to ask."

"Sorry, its just an automated response, rumours about use circulated around in high school and even in the pilot academy," Miyu explained this as they arrived in the Great Fox and made their way to where the crew's quarters were.

"So, what do you think that Fay is going to design?" Fara asked, genuinely curious.

"Probably some sort of interceptor, we always preferred fast hit-and-run attacks to pitched battle so she might design something with higher speed, but lower shielding. Well I better unpack, where are our rooms?"

"Here," Fara said as they arrived at a pair of doors. Indicating one she said, "That's yours and this one should be Fay's. Just go unpack I'll take Fay's stuff into her room." The two each went into the rooms.

--

Fay had already met with the president of Space Dynamics and gone off to design what she called the Arwing Interceptor Type leaving Fox and George Phoenix alone to discuss some things.

"Fara told me what you said, about us," Fox said, "is it true?" Mr. Phoenix nodded.

"Yes it is. I know I've been hard on you in the past, but I haven't seen my daughter this happy in a long time. Just promise me you'll stay loyal to her."

"I will, Mr. Phoenix, Fara was, and still is, my first love and you know what they say about first loves."

"Yes I do. Very well then, just please take care of her." Fox chuckled.

"I'm sure she can take care of herself, but if it's any consolation, we'll take care of each other." George smiled.

"I'm sure you will."

"So, how's business?" Fox and George continued exchanging conversation for a while until Fay came back out of where she had been designing her ship.

"Done," she said.

"Wow, that was fast," Fox said, checking a wall clock.

"Well the design for the Mk III was pretty solid to begin with," Fay explained, "I just tweaked it a bit, gave it faster engines, which lowered it turning ability, lowered shields to allow for dual lasers, and lowered its nova bomb capacity from the proposed 6 down to 3 so as to reduce weight under gravity. Two of them will be completed at the same time as the rest of your, I mean our order and will replace two of the Arwing Mk IIIs."

"That's good to hear," Fox said.

"Also I was able to get two more Arwing IIs for Miyu and I for the next four months, it's not what we're used to flying but it will work"

"That's great," Fox stood up, "sorry, Mr. Phoenix, but we have to go. We were told that we would receive our orders once we got into space so I guess we'll see you in four months." Fox left with Fay following him and George Phoenix smiled at Fox's back.

"I guess I will, just keep your promises Fox."

--Flashback Ends--

"For the next four months we flew missions for Space Dynamics. When those four months had passed as we received our new cruiser and ships, Fox proposed to me with an emerald ring that he had bought with the money he had been saving since those missions began. My father was happy and my mother was ecstatic," Fara said. Fox took over for her.

"We flew various mercenary missions for the next six months we flew missions in our new ships. Fay was a big help as she was able to keep all of our ships and the Great Fox 3 in working order. Miyu was also a big help in planning our attacks, and both of them are very skilled at piloting their Interceptor Type Arwings. When those six months ended we returned to Corneria for our wedding. We were surprised to see Falco and Katt there along with Slippy, his wife Amanda, Bill, and Peppy; I would have invited you Krystal but I had no clue where you were and I didn't think you would either want to see me again or that you would appreciate that gesture. I asked if Falco wanted to join Star Fox again but he declined for that moment, saying he actually preferred to be on his own after the time he spent flying missions with Katt, I also think their becoming closer than they're letting on. Five months later we found out that Fara was pregnant. And seven months later, here we are, that's the whole story."

"That's nice," Krystal said. She was straining to hold back her tears as she had promised herself that she would not cry again the day that Fox told her to leave the team.

"I have to go now," she stood up and walked away. Fox was a bout to go after her but stopped, until Fara put a hand on his shoulder.

"Go after her, Fox, she needs to be comforted." She smiled, "Don't worry I don't mind just calm her down." Fox nodded then went after Krystal, leaving Fara at the table.

--

Krystal was trying her hardest not to cry, but it was getting hard when Fox came up behind her. Hearing him she said with some contempt in her voice

"Fox, shouldn't you be with your wife. You found her so easily after you lost me."

"Krystal," Fox felt for Krystal so he felt he should explain, "It's not that simple. I was alone and Fara helped me out of my depression not only that but she left my life by accident, and by something that was indirectly my fault, but you chose to leave me for someone else. You broke my heart and Fara helped me pick up the pieces and reassemble me heart. Also Fara was and always will be my first love, just as I was hers, and you know what they say about your first love, you'll never love someone the same way again. After that second date all my memories of her came rushing back and a regained the love I thought I'd lost."

"So why'd you come after me, to rub it in!" Krystal's voice was laced with anger as she quickly turned to Fox.

"Not at all," the todd put his hands on Krystal's shoulders, "Please you must understand. I'm sorry about how Panther treated you and I do still care about you. I just can't forget all that's happened in the last two years." Fox let go of Krystal and looked down at the palms of his open hands.

"In about two weeks I'm going to be a father. What kind of man would I be to drop Fara when she's this close to being the mother of my kits?" Fox clenched his hands, "I'd be worse than Panther if I did that." Krystal had calmed down after hearing this.

"I guess you're right, Fox. But what am I supposed to do now? I can't go back to Star Wolf after what happened and I don't really know anywhere else I could go?"

"Why not join Star Fox?"

"Because, it would be awkward, I just don't want to risk igniting your old feelings for me and forcing you and your wife to split up." Krystal was about to leave when Fox said.

"Krystal, but don't take this wrong way but while I care about you, I'm not in love with you anymore," Krystal was visibly shocked but Fox continued, "I know that sounds harsh but listen. When I saw you at the café I paused for a moment because I was afraid my old feelings for you were going to flare up again, but I didn't feel anything beyond some sympathy and concern for you." Krystal nodded.

"I understand, we've both changed a lot in these last two years, and now after listening to you, I don't know if I'm in love with you to the same degree as I was before. Those feelings might eventually wane in time."

"So," fox extended his hand, "will you join, I'm sure that Miyu and Fay will enjoy your company, also, not to sound like I don't actually want you around but your telepathic abilities would be useful."

"I see; it's just a side benefit in a way. Alright," she grabbed Fox's hand, "I'm back in I guess." She put on a smile.

"Good, we're going back to the Great Fox for the next week, and then Fara and I are staying with her parents, George and Christine Phoenix, for the last week until her due date. You should get to know Miyu and Fay a bit before we actually go on any missions." Krystal nodded.

A short time later all three foxes were in the shuttle that Fox and Fara had used to get to Corneria, Krystal having picked up her stuff form the hotel and sold the shuttle she had used prior to that, on the way to the Great Fox III, which was docked in orbit. While Fox was driving and Fara was sitting up with him, Krystal sat in the back area with her suitcase. Many thoughts ran through her head, primary among them were the false face she had put on when she agreed to join Star Fox. She looked out the front window at the Great Fox II which looked very similar to the original, except that it had an extra pair of wings each of which was halfway in-between the two on each side and that it had a larger fighter bay, two extra gun ports on the front, for a total of four, and a missile mounted on the end of each of the six wings.

'I guess that my life begins again today,' she thought to herself, 'I just hope that things work out better this time, I'm strong I'll get through this and maybe find someone else. But still I won't cry over this.'

--

End of chapter notes: I want to know what you think of this. I had to improvise a lot in order to get this chapter to work as I have little to no experience with real romance so the dates were mostly based on stuff I've seen in movies, anime, and read in romance Fanfics.

Also this story was inspired by two others, "Bittersweet" where Fara and Fox meet after Fox and Krystal have fallen in love and they decide to never meet again due to how awkward it would be for them and their future spouses. And one called "9 Months" which details Fox and Fara's first child being born, form conception to birth.

As both Miyu and Fay have never had personalities defined by Nintendo so I felt I should give them some distinction, this gave me some freedom to play with their personalities. While Miyu's tomboyish attitude was inspired by stuff I read on Wikipedia a long time ago her being a bookworm is something I came up with on my own. Fay as a mechanic was inspired by an image at deviantart called "Fay in the Sun" as she is seen holding a wrench. I know that doesn't mean she _is_ one in any sense but considering they'd need a skilled mechanic on the team it was an idea I thought would be somewhat original and practical for the story.

Also read the stuff at the top again before writing reviews, I just re-read my reviews and some of them are a little biased. Not that I mind but still… You should know that I don't have a preference for Fox's love interest.


	3. New Arrivals

Forgive me for adding an OC to this story

Forgive me for adding an OC to this story. Just don't label him as a Mary Sue right away as I know readers have tendency to do, all too frequently.

I know many people think that Fay is a poodle but I don't think poodle's have ears as large as she does and I remember Wikipedia named her as Fay Spaniel at one point about a year before I wrote this.

I think that Krystal is more of an empath in general and is only fully telepathic when she concentrates on someone's specific thoughts or when she senses or is sent a powerful thought (such as when she was alerted to Sauria in Assault).

Also just in case you were wondering at this point in the story the characters are of the following ages: Fox is 31, Fara is 32 (but only really 3 months older than Fox instead of a full year), Miyu and Fay are both 26, Krystal is 24, my OC is 25

Also the line Fox says about first loves is pulled almost directly from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics". The scene it's from is where Scotty and Picard are on the holodeck recreation of Scotty's _Enterprise's_ bridge. After Scotty comments on the first _Enterprise_ (excluding the one in Star trek Enterprise) being the first ship he served as chief engineer as being the most memorable; Picard mentions his first command, an old rundown ship called the "_U.S.S. Stargazer_", and how despite the fact that his _Enterprise D_ is, statistically, far superior in every regard that he would sometimes give anything to command the _Stargazer_ again. Scotty's next comment is where I got the line from and it is as follows:

_"Ah, it's like the first time you fall in love. You never love a woman quite like that again."_

Now for anon. Reviewers:

Fin: Although your first review was a bit biased your second review got me thinking. I'm glad that someone actually likes my story enough to write a detailed review about it and here's the odd thing. When I first saw Krystal in an ad on TV I didn't know her name, or anything else about her for that matter, later I read a story that depicted Fox married to someone named Fara Phoenix, due to the fact that this Fara I read about knew of some magic and because I did not know she was a fennec (at the time I thought her last name was pronounced "fenix") I actually thought that the blue vixen was Fara as I had not read any other story that featured either of them, read any data about either character online, or played either Adventures or Assault. As for the Panther thing and anything relating to Star Fox Command, like I said I haven't played it and don't own a DS so I have to go with what I read online at GameFAQs and Wikipedia and improvise off of that (IMO, Panther's character was vaguely defined in Assault). As for the materialistic thing, Fox means he does not want to sound like her powers are the only reason he's inviting her back.

Chapter 3: New Arrivals

A spaceship flew into orbit around Corneria. The ship was a small fighter but it was clearly well used owing to the wear and tear from collisions and weapons' fire along the hull. The ship was steel grey but the once silvery grey paint was visible in some places. The ship itself had a wide body with a triangular nose, where the cockpit was located, and forward swept wings with missiles on each end and a gun port at the closest possible point to the fuselage without actually being part of it. The ship's engines were running at a low level as the ship had gone without being refuelled in quite a while.

The figure in the cockpit was a fairly young and odd looking fox. He was about 25 years old with primarily red fur but with greyish fur on his ears, the rear half of his tail, and his hands; he had hazel coloured eyes. Had he not been wearing jeans and heavy boots one could have seen that the "boots" of his feet had the same grey fur colouring. His short hair was the same grey as the greyish fur on the other parts of his body. He was wearing black jeans and brown heavy boots along with a black t-shirt. His one other distinguishing feature was the katana at his left. The sword was in its black scabbard and had no adornments other than the artistic fabric on the handle to increase gripping power and the brass cover at the tip of the scabbard. The sword blade would have been almost a meter long had it been out of its scabbard and the handle was long enough for either one or two handed wielding making the sword itself a little over a meter in length; its guard was an oval that followed the length of the blade almost perfectly. Behind the only seat was a suitcase that was full of his few belongings.

The young fox had his arms crossed and his eyes closed as his fighter was on autopilot. He opened his eyes and stared at the blue planet.

"Corneria," he said in his medium bass voice, "I haven't been here in almost a decade." He took another moment to stare at the planet before asking himself, "I wonder if Star Fox is here? I hope so otherwise I wasted my time coming here."

The fox sat forwards and disengaged autopilot. Taking the controls in his hands he used his nav. computer to scan for any Dreadnaught class battleships in the area. He picked up one in low orbit a short distance off about 65 degrees to his left. Smiling to himself he turned his fighter, the Gladius, in the direction his navigation computer had indicated.

"I just hope their recruiting, or I'll just have to set down and get a job on Corneria."

--

The week was up and Fox was panicking somewhat. Fay closed the engine panel and climbed out from under her interceptor Arwing, which she had pulled onto the service deck and was giving a once over and doing some minor repairs, and watched in amusement as Fox dashed around loading some things of his and Fara's into the Great Fox's shuttle. Despite Fox's somewhat panicky nature Fara was calm and made her way, unassisted, to the shuttle.

Fay swiped her hand across her grease stained face. She was wearing a formerly white shirt, now stained with oil and grease, and overalls which she always wore when working on or fixing anything mechanical on the ship. She shook her head at the display Fox was putting on and she turned around to check the laser on the left side of the fighter.

Fox had a lot of things on his mind when the communicator on his wrist beeped. He hurriedly answered.

"What is it ROB?"

"A single fighter approaching the Great Fox 3 has contacted us. He is requesting to speak with you."

"Alright patch it through but make it quick."

"Affirmative," Rob's robotic voice was replaced by a medium bass voice.

"Fox, if this is you I'm just letting you know that I want to try and join your team. I'll be landing in your carrier in about five minutes so I hope I can meet you then and see about joining you team." Before Fox could say anything the transmission cut off.

"Great, just great," he muttered, "now what am I supposed to do?" He thought for a minute and then noticed Krystal walking past the door that led from the rest of the ship to the docking bay.

"Hey Krystal!" he called out to the blue vixen, who turned to him in response, "could you take Fara down to the planet and wait for me there, I need to meet someone first. I'll take down an Arwing that you can use to get back here."

"Alright," Krystal said. There was some reluctance in her voice but Fox missed it.

"Thanks, Krystal," he said. Fox stood waiting in the hangar as Krystal took off in the shuttle which was carrying his pregnant wife, Fara, and the things they had packed for their week-long stay with her parents until Fara had their son.

On the way down to the planet Fara came up to the cockpit and sat down, while resting her hands on her swollen belly, next to Krystal who was at the controls of the shuttle. Fara noticed the sad look in Krystal's eyes and decided to ask something that had been on her mind a while.

"Krystal, do you hate me for 'stealing' Fox from you?" The blue fox shook her head.

"No it's not that, Fara, it's just… every time I look at you, and see that you and Fox are so happy together and that you are expecting a child, I can't help but see a life I could have had if I'd done things differently in the past. I just can't help but see your position in Fox's heart as one I could have held if I hadn't broken his heart." Krystal's voice was laced with sorrow and she seemed on the verge of tears. Fara felt sorry for her but was also a little confused.

"But then why were you so willing to join Star Fox then?"

"Because, if I didn't I wouldn't have anywhere else to go or anything else to do. Not only that but even if I can't have him the same way you do, it hurt more not knowing if he was even alive. He's a real leader because he seems to radiate calm, now more so than ever."

"Except when he's running in around in a panic for my sake," Fara chuckled. In spite of herself, Krystal couldn't help laughing a bit as well."

--

Back on the Great Fox 3 Fox watched as an old, yet quite well built fighter landed in the hangar. He watched as an odd looking 25 year old male fox—carrying a sheathed Katana at the top of its scabbard in his left hand—climbed out of the cockpit. Fox immediately noticed that this newcomer was some sort of crossbreed by the silvery grey markings on his points. The odd fox came up to Fox and said.

"My name is Wilson Kitsune; I'm here to join the Star Fox team." Wilson's calm smile made Fox a little calmer but he knew he had to be quick.

"Nice to meet you, Wilson, I'm sorry but any proceedings to get you to join will have to wait a week. My wife, Fara Phoenix-McCloud, is waiting for me on Corneria and I have to be with her; we're expecting out first child in a week."

"Ok then, so can I just stay here while I wait then, maybe I can also use the time to give Gladius," he gestured with his right thumb over his shoulder at the fighter he had come in, "some work that it's needed for some time."

"I'm sure that would be alright," both foxes turned to Fay, who had finished work on her ship and was coming over to them, wiping her hands on a rag, "if you want I could give your ship a once over for you."

"She's right," Fox said, "but forgive me because I have to go. Please try to get to know Fay, Miyu, and Krystal in the next week." Both Fay and Wilson watched as Fox ran over to his Arwing Mk III and jumped in the cockpit then blasted out through the atmospheric force field towards the planet. Fay smiled at the newcomer and moved closer to him to be able to talk with him more easily.

"Well, Wilson, if you have anything in that fighter that you need, then I suggest that you get it out before I check it over," Fay said. The odd looking fox nodded.

"Alright, could you get someone to show me where I can stay for the next little while?" Fay nodded in response.

"Alright," she pressed a button on the control console next to the doorway leading to the rest of the ship, "Hey, Miyu?"

"What is it Fay," came Miyu's alto voice over the intercom.

"We have a guest, could you come down to the hangar and take him to his room please?"

"Alright, just hold on a minute." Fay shut off the intercom and then smiled at the fox.

"Well, since repairs are done on my fighter, I guess I could take a look at yours. What was it called again?"

"It's called the Gladius, and thanks for checking it out, Miss Fay."

"If you want to say that correctly, it's Miss Spaniel," Fay said as she walked over to the newcomer's ship, picking up a toolbox along the way however Wilson beat her there and pulled out his suitcase before going back to stand by the door. Wilson waited a couple minutes before Miyu arrived at the hangar.

"I assume you are the new pilot, my name is Miyu Lynx, and you are?" Miyu posed the question while holding out her hand in greeting.

"Wilson Kieran Kitsune, it's nice to meet you Miss Lynx."

"Please, I prefer to be called Miyu, not Miss anything," The lynx sounded a bit annoyed but Wilson ignored it instead saying.

"So, where will I be staying for the next week or so?"

"We have four vacant quarters onboard; you can stay in one for the time being. Please follow me," Miyu began walking down the corridors with Wilson in tow carrying both his sword and the suitcase he had retrieved from his ship. On the way, Miyu couldn't help but noticed Wilson's odd fur colouring and asked.

"What is with those silvery patches on your fur, are you over stressed?" Wilson glared at her minor joke.

"Ha ha, very funny Miyu," the sarcasm in his voice was replaced by his original tone as he explained. "Actually, I'm a cross-breed. My father was a Cornerian Red Fox, like your team leader, whereas my mother was a Fichinan Arctic Fox. I'll tell you the story later when you all are present as it is quite long and I don't want to repeat myself." While they were talking they arrived at the quarters that Miyu had decided Wilson should stay for the next week.

"Well here we are," she said, typing in the code to open the door. She quickly showed the cross-bred fox the code before she explained that the rooms were insulated so no one could hear what was going on inside unless the door was open. Miyu smiled for a second and made a small joke.

"Fay and I think the reason for the soundproofing was because Fox and his wife share the same room, if you see what I mean."

"Nice," Wilson's sarcasm and glare showed that he clearly understood what Miyu meant. "So is there a gym on this ship? I haven't had a chance to stretch my muscles in ages."

"Of course there is, just use the map on your computer to find out where everything is; you'll need to familiarise yourself with this ship if you're staying with us for any length of time." Miyu left Wilson to his own devices to go back to whatever she had been doing beforehand which in this case was reading a novel, that she had picked up on Corneria recently, in the ship's living room.

Wilson set his suitcase down on the bed and opened it. Inside it were some sets of clothing and one other thing, another Katana, with a white scabbard with no cover on the tip and white gripping fabric with some golden thread woven into it instead of the black fabric on the handle of the other. He set his own sword leaning at the corner of the head of the bed in the room and took the white one from his suitcase and setting it on the dresser in the room. He took some workout clothes out of his suitcase and set them aside.

Wilson decided that he might as well work out for a bit since he had the time, but first he had to find out where the work out room was. He sat down at the computer in the room and pulled up the maps of the inside of the Great Fox 3. He stared at the maps for a good ten minutes before he decided that he knew the ship well enough to find his way around. After changing into his workout clothes, a white muscle shirt and black shorts, he left for the ship's gym.

When he arrived at the gym, which was on a higher level of the ship than either the crew's quarters or the hangar and just one level above the living room, Wilson noticed that in addition to the workout equipment, that there was a two person 100m oval track, a jukebox that looked like it was an antique, and may have been put there as a joke, and, somewhat to his surprise but by no means displeasure, some gymnastics mats set up on the floor which could be used as a sparring area. He walked over to the jukebox and looked over the music selections, seeing that there were some heavy metal and rock songs, he tried one. The machine appeared to work but then stopped. Annoyed, Wilson kicked the machine and it came alive with light and the sound of an old rock band.

"That's better; I work out better with music. Not very loud though," he went over to the bench press and set the weight at about 50 kilograms, he then lay down on the bench to begin his workout.

--

As they both knew Fox quite well, both Fara and Krystal waited for him at the landing area near where the Phoenix-McClouds would be staying for the following week. When Fox's Arwing landed he greeted the two vixens, buzzed his wife on the cheek, and bid Krystal farewell. Krystal said a quiet goodbye to the couple and climbed into the Arwing Mk. III that Fox had used and took off back into orbit to return to the Great Fox 3.

Along the way she thought about a lot of things, predominant among them was her decision not to cry. When Fox had broken ties with her over two years ago she had cried for quite a while but after that she had promised herself that she would never cry again. While she had kept that personal promise she had come close to breaking it several times over the last week. However there was one question on her mind at the moment, she had overheard what ROB and Fox said about someone wanting to join the Star Fox team and she wondered what the potential new member was like. These thoughts ran through her head as she landed and disembarked. She noticed that Fay working on a new fighter in the bay, which had clearly seen better days, and went over to her asking.

"Fay, whose fighter is that?"

"It belongs to that odd looking fox, Wilson Kieran Kitsune," she replied while opening a panel on the ship's port side, "he called it the Gladius and it's in pretty bad shape; I'm amazed that our friend made it this far considering the condition this thing is in. The armour is almost to the point of buckling, the shields are overworked, the engines are in decent enough condition but the afterburners are fried and the ship is almost out of fuel." Fay closed the panel and went over the left wing tip.

"These missiles on the wings are in good condition except that I've disarmed them so they won't go off in the bay, but they have quite a concentrated array of explosive power. In other words they won't produce the same wide area damage as Nova Bombs but they will deal more damage to a single point on a ship." Krystal was amazed to say the least.

"You can tell all that just by doing a 20 minute check?"

"Of course," Fay replied, smiling, "if I'm going to be a good mechanic I have to be able to give a ship a once over in a very short period of time." She shrugged her shoulders raising her hands to form a "W" with her arms as she spoke her next sentence.

"As for repairs, I'll have to wait to speak to Wilson again. I might be able to make the ship more manageable but I can tell from its current state that it hasn't been properly repaired in quite a while so it might be better just to build a replacement, but I know how some pilots get attached to their ships." Krystal nodded.

"Alright, I'm going to me room for a bit, see you later," Krystal departed leaving Fay to her work.

When Krystal arrived at her quarters she was about to enter when she noticed a smell coming from the direction of the workout room; it was the smell of perspiration. She turned and saw Wilson walking down the corridor with sweat glistening on his fur. She grimaced as she saw that he had obviously been working out and had not showered yet. The odd looking fox noticed her and extended his hand while approaching her.

"Hey, you must be Krystal. I'm Wilson Kieran Kitsune, pending member of Star Fox, nice to meet you." Krystal listened to him but did not extend her hand.

"You would be correct. I'm sorry to be rude but you smell like you've just been working out so could you please shower before shaking my hand?" Wilson lifted his raised arm and smelled, quickly pulling his arm away from himself after doing so.

"Whoo I guess I smell pretty ripe. We'll talk after I've showered." As Wilson turned into his room Krystal just stared after him for a moment. After sitting on her bed for a minute and, not having anything to do, she decided to go and meet this new candidate for the Star Fox team. Krystal exited her room and pushed the buzzer for Wilson's door; as the rooms were soundproof she did not get a response until the door slid open and Wilson stepped out, his fur somewhat dishevelled and wearing the same clothes he had been when he arrived on the ship.

"So let's try again, I'm Wilson Kitsune and you are Krystal, correct?" he said, once again extending his hand. Krystal took his hand and shook it saying.

"Yes I am. So," she released his hand and was about to say something when Wilson cut in.

"I am half Cornerian Red Fox and half Fichinan Arctic Fox; that's why my fur looks like this, though I'm more arctic than red despite my appearance." Krystal blinked.

"I see, so now what?"

"Want to watch some TV in the living room?"

"I guess so. I don't really have anything else to do." So they departed to do just that.

--

Six days later: Miyu, Fay, Krystal and Wilson were in the Great Fox 3's bridge listening to Fox on the comm. system. Apparently, Fara had been one day premature of her due date and Fox was calling from the hospital. While they were all listening to Fox's recount of the slight rush to the hospital and the slight worry that he and Fara's parents had had at the crucial moment, Fay was the first to ask him a question.

"So what does he look like?"

"Well, we can't say whose eyes he has, Fara's eyes and mine are too similar, but he has my ears and Fara's fur colouring. We named him Todd," at this comment Miyu couldn't help but chuckle. Wilson glanced at her asking.

"Did I miss a joke?"

"No, it's just that a todd is a male fox. Is that a tradition of some sort, Fox?" Miyu asked this last part to Fox.

"Well," Fox paused for a moment, "I think my mother once said something about it being traditional in her family to name the eldest child of the family after the species in some way, which is why she was named Vixy and I'm called Fox."

"Makes sense," Wilson said.

"Well I've got to go, can't leave my family waiting," Fox stopped and spoke the next part with less enthusiasm than before, "It's funny, ever since my parent's died I've wondered what a family would be like, and now I don't know how to feel about it. I better go." Fox closed the comm.

Krystal, who had been silent the entire time turned and left the room. Wilson noticed and went after her.

"Something wrong, Krystal?"

"No, I'm alright," she replied.

"You're lying," Krystal turned to Wilson somewhat surprised.

"How can you tell?"

"I don't need to be an expert to tell that from you at the moment. I also think that you have some stuff to burn."

"What?"

"I think you have a lot of pent up tension, frustration, and disappointment right now. Do you have a weapon of some sort?" Though confused, Krystal didn't sense any bad intent from the odd looking fox so she replied.

"Yes I have a staff, but why?"

"Just get it, get into your workout clothes and meet me at the sparring mats in the gym, I'll explain there." The two of them walked back to their quarters and split up at that point. As Wilson had be wearing his workout clothes since before the call, because he had been going to work out until they got the call, he was in an out of his room faster than Krystal, he had taken the white sword, still in scabbard from the dresser and proceeded to the ship's gym.

--

Fox put the video phone's microphone on its receiver and sighed. Truthfully he was nervous about what kind of father he'd be as he had known his father most of his life owing to the fact that he had flown as the original Star Fox Team's leader and his death at the hands of Andross due to Pigma's treachery. He turned around to see George Phoenix behind him.

"Oh hi Mr. Phoenix," He said a little nervously.

"Please, Fox, You can call me dad if you want, you are my son-in-law now after all."

"I guess," George could see that Fox had something on his mind and while they walked back to Fara's room, he asked him.

"What's wrong, son?" being addressed with that pronoun caused Fox to stop for a minute.

"It's just that, I never really had my parents for a large part of my life so I'm really concerned about what kind of father I'm going to be for your Grandchild."

"I think you'll do fine," George said, "you've taken care of Fara ever since you two were re-united almost two years ago."

"Thanks," as the two resumed their walk, Fox commented, "I find it hard to believe that you trust me this much, I remember back when I was dating your daughter before the Lylat wars that you were opposed to our relationship because of my, how did you put it, 'uncertain and risky lifestyle.' Needless to say I was surprised when you gave us your blessing and even offered to help pay for and organize our wedding." George couldn't help but chuckle at this.

"Yes I do remember but after you left, thinking that she was dead, she was quite depressed which tore me up inside. When I saw how happy she was that day on the _Tungsten_, and remembered that she had not been that happy for years, I just couldn't bring myself to try and pull you apart."

"Thanks, dad," George smile. By now they had arrived at Fara's room in the maternity ward. Upon entering, Fox immediately went to his wife's side. Christine Phoenix moved to her husband's side at the door and they watched the happy couple with their first-born son, who was sleeping in Fara's arms.

"He's beautiful, Fara," Fox said, "So was all of this worth it?"

"Of course, silly," she replied, kissing the tip of her husband's nose, "even the pain was worth it to be here with you and our little Todd. Would you like a daughter as well?" she asked. Fox almost choked, causing the three fennecs in the room to laugh. Todd Phoenix-McCloud slept silently through the whole ordeal.

--

Krystal emerged from her room wearing her workout clothes, a white t-shirt with bluish grey shorts, and carrying her staff in its compacted form. She made her way down to the gym wondering what Wilson had in mind. When she arrived she was a little surprised to see the cross-bred fox carrying a long curved sword in its case.

"Finally made it," he said.

"Wilson, what are you thinking?" Krystal asked as she moved towards him. Wilson smiled.

"Simple, let's spar; I've found it's a great way to relieve tension."

"Wait," Krystal protested, "How is it a fair match if you have a sword while I only use a staff, as powerful as it is."

"Two things, first any weapon is capable of being unbeatable provided the user knows how to wield it correctly and second…" Wilson drew his sword and showed it to Krystal. The blue vixen had never seen a sword like it before. The blade wasn't straight but, as she has guessed owing to the shape of the scabbard, curved. What struck her as odd was that the white handled curved sword that was about a meter long had the silver-grey cutting edge the incurve and the black blunt end on the out curve instead of having both edges bladed or the only blade on the outcurve.

"This is an old type of Fichinan sword called a katana; this particular type is a sakabato, a reverse-bladed training sword. I thought it would make this fight even if I only use the blunt end to attack; it's safer as well."

"I suppose," Krystal said. She extended her staff and walked over to the sparring mats and took up a fighting stance facing Wilson and they began sparring. While Wilson was fighting her in earnest, Krystal did not seem to be at the top of her game; Wilson managed to disarm the azure vixen three times practically effortlessly. After the fourth time he knocked her staff out of her hand and her to the floor he sheathed his sword.

'I know she can do better than this, but her heart just isn't in it,' he sighed, 'forgive me for this but I don't see an alternative to get her to fight.'

"That's all you've got," the cross-bred fox's voice became mean spirited, almost insulting.

"Well forgive me, I'm not exactly in a fighting mood," she said, sounding a little dejected.

"Well I'm not surprised; a weakling like you wouldn't be able to fight me anyways." Krystal twitched; seeing that she was starting to get mad Wilson smiled.

"I didn't think that a self-righteous bitch like you doesn't have the will to actually defend…" he was cut off as Krystal swung her staff full force at his head and he was forced to dodge.

"You arrogant little bastard," she said seeming to burn with fury, "I'll teach you to say things like that to me!" Wilson backed off raising his arms in protest as Krystal bore down on him.

"Whoa Krystal hold it."

"Why? Do you think I'm just going to let it go after you insulted me?!"

"Krystal sorry I as just trying to get you to fight more seriously," Krystal stopped.

"What?" Krystal lowered her weapon and held it one hand. Wilson stopped backing up and lowered his hands.

"I was just trying to get you in a fighting mood," he walked over the jukebox, "Not only that, but like I said before you need to work out your frustration."

"Well I'm not homicidal anymore, but I'm still ticked because of what you said about me."

"Alright, we can get back to sparring in a sec just let me turn on the music," he pushed a button on the jukebox, nothing happened. Frowning he pushed again, and then tapped it several times.

"Stupid machine," he said. He raised his fist above his head and brought it down hard on the top of the jukebox putting a dent in it. The machine shuddered from the blow and flared to life; a moment later it began to play the heavy metal tune that Wilson had selected to accompany their fight. He turned back to Krystal and drew his sakabato.

"So I assume that you will be fighting at full force now?" he asked.

"Right," Krystal raised her staff and took up a fighting stance.

"Then since you're fighting at full force," held up his sword in a fighting stance using both hands, "I will show you no mercy, so get ready!" He rushed at the blue vixen as she held up her staff in preparation to counter.

--

Miyu had gone to read in the living room when Fay, who had obviously just showered, walked in. Miyu lowered her book and glanced at her.

"Just washed the grease out of your fur?" she asked in a somewhat joking manner. Fay glared at her for a moment.

"Don't joke about that Miyu, I've told you how hard it is to wash grease out of my fur, it's just plain difficult no matter how you slice it." Fay sat down next to Miyu.

"So, what are you reading?"

"A novel called Redwall; it takes place in medieval times in this place called Redwall Abbey and tells the story of a young abbey mouse named Mathias as he deals with the invasion of his home by a vicious rat called Cluny the Scourge and his horde of, as this book calls it, vermin."

"Who wrote it?" Fay was genuinely curious.

"Someone named Brian Jacques, he died long before space travel was an everyday activity but his books are still being printed because of their popularity; this book has numerous sequels and prequels which I hope to be able to read." Fay was impressed with her knowledge to say the least.

"You sure know a lot about authors and novels."

"I do seem a little obsessive about it but it's my hobby, just like you and your engineering thing, so I research about the stuff I read extensively."

"Well thank makes sense," Fay said. Fay then sat forwards suddenly. Miyu had known Fay long enough to know that the cocker spaniel's hearing was more sensitive than her own; she put a bookmark in her book, set it down, and asked her friend.

"Do you hear something, Fay?" Fay nodded.

"It sounds like some sort of rock music from the workout room."

"I'm surprised that you can hear through the insulated walls."

"Ordinarily I wouldn't, but with the ships system running so quietly and with no one else onboard but Krystal, Wilson, and ourselves it's easier than you think. Also, in case you forgot, only the personal rooms are insulated against sound, the rest of the ship carries it fairly well."

"Guess what I said about obsessing about our hobbies was true," Miyu commented, chucking to herself.

"Well," Fay stood up, "let's go see what's going on in the gym." Miyu shook her head as she stood up and followed her spaniel friend out the living room door and towards the gym.

--

Now that Krystal was fighting at her full strength, she and Wilson were now on more even ground in their sparring match; they had been striking and blocking for about three minutes and neither of them had landed a blow on the other's body or managed to disarm the other. By this point both of them were beginning to tire; Wilson was amazed at Krystal's determination and her skill with her staff.

Deciding to try one last move on her Wilson stepped back and gripping his sakabato in both hands swung it back over his right shoulder. Krystal held her staff like a spear and rushed the cross-bred fox; seeing his opportunity, Wilson swung his sword full-force at Krystal's staff, knocking it to the ground and sending it skidding towards the gym door; the force of the blow sent the vixen onto her back. Both foxes were now panting from exertion. Wilson pointed the sakabato at Krystal's head, with the dull tip about 25 centimetres from her face, and said.

"Looks like… I win."

"You not bad with that sword of yours," Krystal said.

"I'll say," Wilson turned to the door—while sheathing his sword—and saw Miyu and Fay, the former of which had just spoken and the latter of the two had just crouched down to pick up Krystal's fallen staff. Turning back to Krystal, Wilson offered his right hand to her and helped her up after she had taken it; after Krystal had gotten to her feet, Fay returned the vixen's staff to her. Krystal reduced her staff back to its storage size, which was one-third of its regular length.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" the vixen asked Wilson.

"On Fichina, like I said it's a long story but once Fox and Fara return I'll tell all of you." Wilson smiled at Krystal and said, "Looks like you've worked out your frustration, but not your disappointment. Not to sound offensive but why don't you cry for a bit, it can help." Krystal averted her gaze from Wilson.

"I won't, I promised myself when Fox made me leave the team that I'd never cry again."

"So you became like a devil?" Miyu asked.

"What?" Fay was confused, as were Wilson and Krystal. Miyu shook her head in exasperation and replied.

"It's from an old saying that says that devils never cry; in case you're wondering I read this in a book on proverbs."

"I see, so what's your point," Krystal asked.

"I think she means that not crying is the reason you are having such a hard time accepting your losing Fox to Fara or other things that you may have lost," Wilson explained what he though Miyu meant.

"Right," the lynx replied, "but there's something else I once read. Let me think," she closed her eyes in though before continuing, "It goes something like this

_Though he is full of malice and hate,_

_And bears nothing but ill will towards all beings,_

_Even a devil may cry, if he loses a loved one."_

Krystal blinked and for the first time in two years a tear coursed down her cheek. Krystal dropped her staff and then squeezed her hands into fists as her eyes began to water and tears streamed down her face. Suddenly Krystal pressed her palms onto her eyes and began crying. She cried for Fox, for her parents, and her lost home planet Cerinia; she collapsed to her knees, crying her eyes out. Seeing that she needed help, Fay helped Krystal to her feet—while she was still crying—and picked up her staff saying.

"Come one, Krystal, I'll take you back to your room," the white cocker spaniel then led the azure vixen back to her quarters leaving Miyu Lynx, and a quite surprised Wilson Kitsune, in the gym. Wilson gave Miyu an odd look.

"What was with Krystal? I guess she really loved Fox." Miyu stared, open mouthed, as the fox.

"What? Did you learn anything about her in the last week," Miyu's voice was a mixture of surprise and annoyance.

"What do you mean?" Wilson asked. Miyu sighed and replied by saying.

"Krystal told me earlier last week that she's the last known being from the planet Cerinia. Her entire planet was destroyed over a decade ago through the actions of Andross, she just doesn't know how because she was only 10 years old at the time. For some reason that she hasn't told us she was sent off the planet and saw it as it was destroyed. After I said the line '_even a devil may cry if he loses a __loved one__,_' the fact that she's lost so many loved ones—because she apparently hasn't cried in two years—must have really caught up to her."

"Oh man and I though I had it bad, losing your entire planet must be hard on you." Wilson saw Miyu's quizzical glance and decided to say something about his past, "I lost my parents during the Lylat wars, sorry for sounding like a broken record but I'll tell you the whole story when Fox gets back."

"Alright," the lynx turned to leave the gym, "I'm going to go check on Fay and Krystal." As Miyu left, Wilson drew his sakabato again.

"Alright," he called after her then said to himself, "I'd better keep practicing."

--

Fay had led Krystal back to her room and left her to cry herself, presumably to sleep, on her bed still wearing her workout clothes. As she closed the door, she heard footsteps and turned to see her lynx friend coming towards her.

"So, how is Krystal?" Miyu asked.

"Still crying, poor girl, I guess what you said really got to her," Fay replied

"Yeah, I just hope that she isn't mad at me when she wakes up tomorrow."

"I don't think she'll be she doesn't really like to hold grudges from what I know about her." Fay smiled but before Miyu could respond ROB's voice cur in over the intercom system.

"Attention, temperature in gymnasium has increased by 400 in the last 90 seconds."

"What?" Miyu said, taken off guard by the announcement. Both friends exchanged silent looks and dashed to the lift which would take them back to the level the gym was on. When they arrived they found an exhausted, sweaty Wilson Kitsune just pushing the last of his sakabato katana back into its sheath. Miyu blinked as she swore fro a second that there had been smoke coming off the sword but instead said.

"Are you ok? ROB said that this room just greatly increased in temperature a short time ago."

"Well I feel warm but I have been working out, maybe the ship's sensors or a bit off." Before either of the high-school friends could say anything else, the fox left the Gym and headed back to his room. Miyu turned to Fay and said.

"I must be hallucinating because I swear his sword was literally smoking a moment ago."

Later that night the rest of the people on the ship were asleep—or recharging in ROB's case. Krystal had fallen asleep hours before, after she had finished crying, and for once had a peaceful and dreamless sleep.

--

End notes: Well that's the best I could do but sill I am ready to receive all the flak that I know I will for using a character who was not created by anyone who wrote a Star Fox Story before because I know that I will.

Sorry, I just have seen a lot of OC bashers for stories like these in numerous places.

At any rate if you are not just going to flame him, I would like opinions on Wilson Kitsune (the character) and please try not to be biased.

Also I do plan to write at least one more chapter but I am almost done this story, I will try to have it up before the end of next week.


	4. New Beginnings

Chapter 4:

Well I thought that I might elaborate on some things in the last chapter. First sorry about what I said about how people react to OCs but someone flamed an older work of min (which I've since removed) because of the use of an OC in that story.

There are a couple references to Devil May Cry 3 in the last chapter.

The first is the jukebox during Wilson and Krystal's duel. During the first mission cut scene in Devil May Cry 3, Dante tries to get a jukebox working before he fights some demons, but it doesn't work after he pushes a button about six times. He then smashes the top hard with his fist, putting a huge dent in it, and the machine starts to work and blasts heavy metal music forth. Wilson does the exact same thing with the jukebox in the gym, albeit the dent isn't as large as he isn't as strong as Dante but the music is still the same. If I could add music to the story it would be the same music played during the first mission of Devil May Cry 3.

The line "E_ven a devil may cry, if he loses a loved one,_" that Miyu says is actually taken directly from the game Devil May Cry 3 that line is said by the character Lady at the end of the game in reference that Dante lets a tear fall from his eye after witnessing his brother Virgil fall into the abyss; when asked if he crying Dante replies by saying "devils never cry" (something noted by Miyu) and Lady responds by saying "I think somewhere out there **even a devil may cry if he loses a loved one**". The other lines in that quote that Miyu says I just made up to add some depth to the line by building up to it.

I know that I lack any flashbacks in the story, but I they would spoil some things later and also I did not know what I wanted the characters to say in the flashbacks.

Chapter 4: New Beginnings

When Krystal awoke the next morning, she felt oddly calm considering the previous day. She sat awake on her bed for about an hour thinking things over; both the sparring match with Wilson and what Miyu said had allowed Krystal to work out all of the emotions that had been building up and that she had been harbouring since Fox broke up with her two years ago. She stood up and went over to her room's window on space and stared out into the Lylat system, as her side of the ship was facing away from Corneria, and realized that she was at peace with herself for the first time in a long time. Mentally she had forgiven many people, including herself but excluding Andross, for some things that they had done in the past that had affected her adversely, whether they had done those things on purpose or had done something that unknowingly had caused her pain. Krystal smiled to herself and decided that she should get dressed and prepare to face her day, but this time with an open mind and a relieved heart.

--

Breakfast in the Great Fox's dining area was silent when Krystal arrived. She hadn't realized that she had slept in until she arrived and saw that everyone else was already awake and eating the breakfast—which was bacon and scrambled eggs with toast—that Fay had made, as she had been the first awake, as she felt that after the previous night they would all need a pick-me-up that morning. The meal was taken in silence until Wilson, who was wearing his workout clothes (which had been washed the previous night) and was the first to finish, spoke up.

"Krystal about yesterday, I'm sorry. I didn't know what you'd been through." Krystal swallowed her mouth full of eggs and replied.

"That's alright, I've calmed down and after yesterday and last night I feel better than I have in ages."

"That's good to hear," Miyu said, "I was afraid that quote I said may have hurt you."

"Not really; you guys were a big help. Also it helped me make an important decision; I'm going to stay with Star Fox." Fay swallowed and gave the vixen a sideways glance before saying.

"What do you mean by that? I thought you were going to rejoin the team anyways."

"Actually I had planned on leaving today," Krystal put down her fork and knive and began to explain what she meant. "When I saw that Fox was happy with Fara I knew that I should leave to prevent complications, but when I saw that Fox was willing to let me on the team I thought that I should leave without him knowing. Before I left, I wanted to make sure that things would be all right so I waited until his son was born just in case something happened. When I saw that he and Fara were going to be all right, I decided that I'd get up early today, go down to Corneria, and get a shuttle to leave this place with."

"Then what would you have done? From what I've heard there weren't many places you could go." Wilson had said this while leaning back in his seat.

"I thought that I would be a bounty hunter. I would change my name and make a living for myself in my own way; I had been planning to call myself Kursed and to make sure that if Fox ever ran into me that he would never recognize me. But after the sparring match yesterday and the cry I had last night I feel more relieved and at peace with myself than I have in a long time. I know that I can never win back Fox but a least here I have people who care enough about me to make sure that I'm alright, even though until two weeks ago I didn't even know about you. I still feel hurt from all the things in my past but I don't think that running off will solve anything."

"Well I'm glad you decided to stay, excuse me," Wilson got up and left, leaving the three women to finish their meal. The fox made his was back to his room, he was glad that Krystal was staying, though he had only known her for a week he had begun to understand what it was life for her after the previous night, and he respected her ability to remain as cheerful and calm as she did despite her past. Upon reaching his room, he opened the door and entered. He went over to his dresser and gazed at the picture set on the middle of the top of the dresser. The picture was of an older couple, a male Cornerian red fox and a female Fichinan arctic fox. On the bottom right side of the picture were scrawled the words: _Frank and Yamato Kitsune, best wishes for your new life._

This picture held a lot of significance for Wilson because it was a picture of his parents, given to them by Wilson's only uncle, his father's brother, who had been his father's best man at the wedding. He sighed, thinking that he and Krystal were similar in at least some way because they had both lost their parents. Wilson sighed and wiped a tear from his right eye. He picked up his Sakabato, deciding to go to the gym and practice for a bit.

--

After finishing breakfast, Miyu offered to clean up, as Wilson had left, Fay had cooked, and she felt that Krystal should have some time to herself. When Krystal exited the lift on the level where the quarters were she met Wilson, who had been waiting to use the lift himself.

"Hey, Krystal," he said. Krystal noticed that he was carrying the reverse bladed sword, which he had referred to as a sakabato, with him. As she passed him Krystal decided to join him in another sparring match so they could truly compare their skill, now that she would be fighting with skill instead of anger. She jogged back to her room, entered, and proceeded to change into her workout clothes. Before leaving she grabbed her staff, still compacted, and dashed off to the gym.

Wilson had pulled out his reverse-bladed katana and was doing some practice swings when Krystal walked in carrying her staff. He stopped mid swing, lowered his sword to his side and turned to her asking.

"Krystal, why do you have your staff with you?"

"I want to spar with you again," she replied, extending her staff and walking over to the dueling mats, "now that I've calmed down I want to see which one of us is really the better fighter. Best three out of five?" she took up a fighting stance. Wilson smiled and held his sword in both hands in the vixen's direction.

"You're on," the Wilson's reply caused both foxes to dash at each other, each of their weapons striking the other's weapon. Wilson was pushing his sword against Krystal's staff, which she was holding in both hands, and was using the middle to hold back Wilson's sakabato.

"You're stronger than you look," Wilson said, feeling just how strong she was as she was able to hold back his sword.

"Same to you," Krystal replied; she admitted mentally that it was taking all of her strength to hold back the sword. They both jumped backwards and then Wilson charged, striking out several times at her, forcing her to block in rapid succession.

About 20 minutes later the two foxes were panting from exertion, sweat glistening on their fur. They were tied at two wins each and this was their final round of combat. Krystal hit out at Wilson with her staff but he managed to block it and, with a twist of the sakabato, he disarmed her. Krystal fell to her rear and stared as Wilson pointed his reverse bladed katana at her face.

"You're pretty good," he said, sheathing his sword, "I haven't fought someone this evenly in a long time."

"But I still lost," Krystal said as Wilson helped her up.

"True, but I was on my last legs during that last blow, you might have won if that last attack of mine failed."

"Maybe," Krystal hung her head a bit.

"Just don't get down about it, we just managed to cure you of depression so don't revert," Wilson then left to go shower and change. Krystal just shook her head in amuzement.

--

Ten days later Fox and Fara Phoenix-McCloud had returned to the Great Fox 3 and had just managed to get their son, Todd Phoenix-McCloud, to fall asleep. Now Fox, Fara, Miyu, Fay, Krystal, and Wilson were sitting in the living room. Fara and Fox were sitting on one of the loveseats, Krystal, Miyu, and Fay were sitting on the couch, and Wilson sat on the loveseat, across from Fara and Fox, by himself. The baby monitor, that Fara had purchased on Corneria mostly because the quarters of the Great Fox were soundproof, was set on the end table next to the loveseat where Fara and Fox were sitting. Fox was wearing a white sweater and blue sweatpants. Fara was wearing a pink t-shirt and shorts of the same colour. Miyu was wearing a navy blue t-shirt and blue jeans. Fay wore a pale yellow t-shirt and skirt. Krystal wore a sky blue short-sleeved shirt and shorts while Wilson was wearing a white T-shirt and black rugby pants. Miyu was the first to speak.

"So Wilson, as long as we're all in the same place at the same time why don't you tell us about yourself. You told us that you would tell us your whole story when were in one place." Wilson smirked.

"Yeah I did, alright I'll explain." The cross-bred fox leaned back and began to recite.

"I might as well explain about my odd appearance in some detail first. You see my father was an orphan on Corneria who was never adopted and therefore never received a last name. His name was Frank; he was a Cornerian Red Fox and when he was old enough he was able to enrol in the Cornerian Military academy. Eventually he completed his training and was assigned to escort and oversee the maintenance team that repaired the Climate Control Centre on Fichina.

"My mother was Yamato Kitsune. She was a descendant of the Fichinan Arctic Fox warriors that lived on Fichina during the medieval periods of our worlds; her father was one of the only people alive at the time that still practiced those traditions. Yamato had a good family and education and eventually got the education and experience to become part of the team on Fichina that helped maintain the planet's Climate Control Centre.

"The two of them met on my father's first assignment to oversee the regular maintenance. They fell in love after a short time and my mother, Yamato, decided to get transferred to my father, Frank's, division on Corneria. One year later—after making sure they were right for each other—they were married and I was born the year after that. My odd fur coloring comes from a mix of the Cornerian red fox and Fichinan arctic fox genes.

"When I was 10 my parents got a letter from my grandfather on Fichina. It said he wanted us to come for a visit so that summer when I was out of school we managed to get a flight to Fichina. When we got there and I met my grandfather I was amazed by the collection of medieval Fichinan weapons that he had: katana, naginata, spears, bows and arrows and even some samurai armour. After a few days he asked me to try and use a bokken, a wooden katana. When I first tried using a bokken I found that it felt quite natural in my hand and my grandfather asked my parents and me if I could stay with him for some time in order to train in how to use those weapons properly. After talking with me my parents decided that I would spend every summer with him learning about my heritage on my arctic fox side and how to fight with those weapons. My parents then returned to Corneria, as the summer had just begun, and began my training.

"Unfortunately that's when my easy life ended because shortly thereafter shipping lanes in the Lylat system closed after some weapons were smuggled to the planet Zoness allowing its pollution to begin."

"I remember that," Fara spoke up, "I was still the chief flight instructor in the flight academy at the time. I heard about the smuggled weapons on the rebellion by the factions on Zoness but I never knew that they actually prevented travel between planets."

"Well they did," Wilson continued, "and I was stuck on Fichina as was another boy about my age; that boy had come to learn how to be a skilled sword fighter and began to train alongside me. Because I was cut off from leaving the planet my grandfather, Andrew Kitsune, began to train both of us with everything he knew, even teaching me some trick I didn't know that I could do but enough about that.

"Because transportation stayed closed up until the Lylat wars broke out the two of us were able to learn a lot of things in a very short periods of time for martial artists, but when those two years ended the Lylat Wars broke out. We were able to ride out the invasion of Fichina and wait until the Star Fox team had defeated Andross."

"You know," Krystal said softly, "It was just before that that my planet was destroyed. Andross must have done it just before launching the invasion of your system. But you all know enough about that. Wilson, please continue." The cross-bred fox nodded.

"Ok, anyways when the war ended I found out that my parents had been killed in the attack. Their house had been crushed by a giant robot long before the Star Fox Team entered Corneria City. When the shipping and passenger lanes were open I went to their funeral; it was a closed casket because, well, suffice to say seeing what was left of their bodies would have made people retch. After that I went back to Fichina to resume my training and I remained there for about five years. It was during that time that I found out I still had relatives; my father had had a twin brother when they were in the orphanage. They were both orphaned at a very young age and my uncle had been adopted before they had been able to form a close bond. When my father was still in the Cornerian Military Academy they met and my father turned down a chance to live with them. I also have a cousin named Alex but our relationship had been…strained to the say the least and I'd rather not discuss why.

"Anyways after my friend and I had completed our training we both left; I managed to get my ship, Galdius, built on Eladard—the first place I went after leaving Fichina—and I began working as an independent bounty hunter. Trust me it wasn't easy, I went about that for some time, until the Aparoid invasion. I knew that just one ship wouldn't be able to fight them all especially considering that at the time I was not a good pilot—though I have improved since then—and I was forced to avoid them. When the invasion endedI found out that I had lost my grandfather to the Aparoids. After that, until I came here, I was just wandering the system looking for a purpose; the Anglars didn't bother me much considering. I came here after hearing that Star Fox and been re-established. Well that's pretty much all I have to tell you." The air in the room was dim, considering the tale that Wilson had just told.

"I see," Fox said. His voice was almost neutral but one could tell that he felt for the cross-bred fox.

"It's no big deal, I only lost my family and from what I know Fox has as well, and Krystal lost her entire planet so it's really no big deal. So what exactly do I have to do to join the Star Fox team?" Fox though for a moment before saying.

"Well you have to be a good pilot, because a lot of our missions are either in space or atmospheric combat. Also we prefer that you have at least one other specialized skill to use."

"I see," Wilson said.

"I think we should go and use the simulators on Corneria, I don't think that Wilson's Gladius will survive a rough space engagement, even with the repairs I've done to it," Fay suggested. Wilson gave her a sideways glance.

"Hey, the Gladius has served me well in these last several years…"

"And from what I can tell it hasn't been through a proper mechanic in all that time." Wilson was speechless after what Fay said. While he was silent the white spaniel continued to speak.

"If you want my opinion as the mechanic of this team, I think you should just use the basic design of your ship to build a new one; it's in such bad shape I doubt it could survive in any sort of pitched battle."

"Maybe, but I would rather leave it as it is until it absolutely has to be replaced," Wilson said.

"Maybe you should take Fay's advice," Miyu spoke up, "Fay knows what she is talking about."

"I guess, but that's not the point for the moment."

"All right, then get what you need from your room and come to the hangar, we'll meet you there," Fox said. Wilson nodded and everyone except the Phoenix-McClouds left the room.

Fox turned to Fara and asked.

"You don't mind if I go down to Corneria do you, Fara?"

"Not really," Fara smiled. "After all, someone has to look after Todd, and I'm the only one who can feed him."

"I guess so but I promise I'll help out more after this," Fox got up and left to get the shuttle ready.

"Hopefully Wilson will be good enough to join the team. It seems like our team has a way of attracting people with troubled pasts, Fox and Krystal both know what it's like to lose family." Fara's train of thought was interrupted by the baby monitor sounding her son Todd's crying. Fara sighed and got up.

"Guess he's hungry, better go and feed him," Fara got up and made her way to her son's room.

Wilson was in his room grabbing his katana. Instead of the white sakabato he was instead taking the katana with the black scabbard that had been in this room since he had first been staying on this ship. He also took a cloth sword belt and fastened the katana at his left so that it curved downwards. As he stepped out of his room and made his way to the lift he crossed paths with Fara. Before he could enter the lift Fara stopped him and said.

"Wilson, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, what is it Fara?"

"After hearing your story, I think maybe you should get to know Krystal a little better; she knows what it's like in your situation." Wilson gave Fara a sideways glance.

"Are you trying to play matchmaker Fara?"

"Maybe, but still you should still get to know her. I've only known her for a short time but I can tell that despite having let go of her pain, she still needs someone she can talk to." Wilson gave her a quizzical glance and moved past her to the elevator. Fara smiled after him as he closed the doors and went to feed her son.

--

Wilson arrived in the launch bay to find Fox, Krystal, and Fay waiting for him. Fox immediately noticed the sword at Wilson's side.

"Hey, Wilson, what's that sword?" Fox asked.

"It's the sword that I was given at the end of my training; I thought I might need today." Wilson walked to the shuttle but paused and gave Krystal a look, thinking over what Fara had said to him a moment ago. He shrugged and boarded the shuttle.

While the shuttle was flying towards Corneria, with Fox at the controls, Wilson just had to ask him what exactly they were going to do. Fox replied by saying.

"We're going to the GHQ of the Cornerian Military; my old friend, General Peppy, is there and should be able to give us access to the flight simulators.

"Alright, just remember I'm not the best pilot, especially compared to you guys," the lack of confidence in Wilson's voice caught the attention of Krystal, who was sitting just behind the cockpit.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine; if you were a bounty hunter this shouldn't be all that difficult."

"I guess so. I'll try to remember that, Krystal."

--

Once at the Cornerian GHQ, Fox led Wilson, Krystal, and Fay to the General's office. When they arrived, Fox told the two women to wait outside and took the potential new recruit in to meet Peppy. The elder hare was sitting at his desk staring at some reports, which he had just received which he was certain he knew what they said, when the two foxes walked in. Glad for the distraction from paperwork, which was mostly what he did these days, Peppy stood up to greet them.

"Well, Fox, it's nice to see you," Peppy extended his hand, which Fox shook in greeting. Peppy turned to look over the oddly coloured fox.

"So Fox who is this?"

"This is Wilson Kitsune, he came to the Great Fox over three weeks ago hoping to join the Star Fox Team. Unfortunately he came just as Fara and I were leaving to stay here for Fara's last week of pregnancy so until today I haven't really gotten to know him or give him some tests to see if he is up to snuff," fox replied.

"I see, so how is you little Todd anyways?"

"He's doing well, I was afraid that I wouldn't be a good father at first, but after seeing him asleep in my arms just after he was born I have let go of my insecurities. Nevertheless, I'll discuss the points of being a father some other time. I came here to see if we could borrow the flight simulators to test Wilson's abilities." Peppy though on this for a moment and then replied.

"Alright, just bring him, and anyone else who accompanied you, with me and we'll see how he does."

A few minutes later Wilson sat in one of the academy's simulators as Peppy showed him the controls. When he had finished giving the instructions Peppy began to say just how the simulator worked.

"You have Three minutes to shoot down as many of the computer controlled enemy fighter as you can. If you are shot down your ship will respawn but 10 seconds will be deducted from your remaining time in addition to how long it take for your ship to re-spawn. The average graduate from the flight academy can manage 100 kills with 4 deaths; Fox holds the record at 215 kills and no deaths."

"Only 215, that doesn't sound like much of an increase considering his reputation," Wilson commented.

"Actually the simulation gets more difficult the more fighters you kill, in other words the enemy ships take more hits to go down and begin to use better tactics as you shoot more down."

"I guess that makes sense, well here I go," Wilson pushed the launch button and the simulation started.

While Wilson was shooting down the simulated fighter, with Fay and Krystal watching, Fox was talking with Peppy.

"So, Fox, as long as we have a minute please tell me, how are you adjusting to being a father?" Fox sighed.

"I'm doing well enough but I'm just afraid, of a lot of things."

"Such as?"

"I'm afraid that my job might cause my son the same problems that I had, losing his father and mother, also I'm concerned that I won't be helping Fara enough. Mostly I'm concerned about how he'll react to being on a mercenary ship when he's older."

"I'm surprised you think that he wouldn't like it." Fox blinked at Peppy's statement.

"What do you mean by that, Old Timer?"

"Fox, if Todd is yours and Fara's son I doubt that he wouldn't be fascinated with what you do and want to follow in your footsteps, after all you felt that way about your father.  
I was there to see your reaction when he told you what he did for a living, before the incident at Venom, and you immediately wanted to be a pilot when you got older."

"I guess so," Fix smiled, putting his hand on his old friend's shoulder, "thanks Peppy."

"Anytime Fox."

"Ok, I'm finished," Wilson's voice drew their attention away from each other. Wilson climbed out of the simulator as Fox went over to check the point roster.

"98 kills and no deaths," Fox stated, checking the score.

"So, how is it?" Wilson seemed nervous as he asked which was unusual for him.

"Not bad at all," Fox said, "The kill rating is below average but your survival rate is perfect."

"When I was a bounty hunter," Wilson explained, "I was always more concerned with my survival than with how many kills I got, besides I usually tried to force them to land so I could go after them on foot. Truthfully I'm better on land than in the air, especially in hand-to-hand combat," as he said this last part he looked down at the katana, with the black handle, at his side and touched it with his right hand.

"I see," Peppy appeared to be thinking.

"What are you thinking, General?" Fay asked.

"I was thinking that maybe Wilson would like to try our ground battle training area as we have quite a sophisticated setup. However this is real and not a simulation as we find that on foot combat simulators aren't as accurate for judging a person's abilities, because each person has different reflexes and hand weapons behave differently in real life."

"Is it dangerous," Krystal asked in concern.

"Not really, the battle robots use stun rounds instead of bullets or energy blasts so he should only be knocked unconscious if he is hit too often."

"Sounds like it would be a good way to test his skills, are you up for it Wilson?" Fox turned to the crossbreed, who nodded.

"Alright, just tell me what I have to do." Peppy motioned for them to follow him and eventually they arrived at a double door, which led to a large dome shaped room that had a light forest setting with a few large rocks and some trees with leaves. Next to the door was a weapon's locker containing numerous weapons that the Cornerian forces used in ground combat.

"Just take any weapons and any ammo you need from the locker that you can hold on a weapons belt and go into the courtyard, the battle will begin once I input the command codes from the observation area. Don't worry about hurting us because the entire courtyard will be shielded during your session." As Peppy explained this, Wilson went over to the locker and picked up four 200 round clips for the machine gun, and half a dozen grenades as well as a weapons belt to hold both the ammo and the grenades. He made sure that his Katana was secured at his left and picked up the machine gun, carrying it in both of his hands. Before entering the combat area, Krystal spoke up.

"Wilson."

"Yeah," the crossbred fox turned around.

"Good luck out there."

"Thanks, just watch me." As Wilson entered the door, Peppy led Fox, Fay, and Krystal to the observation room, which was also the control room for the practice battles. While the others stood, watching, Peppy grabbed a microphone and spoke, his voice being projected into the courtyard.

"Are you ready," Wilson nodded to the observers before gripping the machine gun in a serious way. Peppy entered the code into the control panel and almost immediately, six circular hatches in the courtyard floor opened and six humanoid robots that were about Wilson's height were raised into the courtyard. Upon seeing Wilson, the six robots turned to him and each fired off an electric shock bolt at him. Wilson doged easily and sprayed the first robot with shots from the machine gun, less than a dozen shots and the robot was destroyed. Before the slow robots could fire again, Wilson quickly turned and put holes in each of the robots.

"Too easy," he commented as he had not even use dup a full clip yet. Even as he said this eight more robots, slightly taller, wearing more armour, and with a single visor like red eye, appeared out of the circular hatches in the floor. Wilson turned and hosed the first one he got in his sights with ammo from his machine gun, but he only got 3 shots off on the next one as he heard his gun click empty.

"Damn," he swore as he dodged shock bullets.

Krystal watched as Wilson was surrounded by the second level robots. She was concerned, but mostly about him failing as she knew he wasn't in any danger.

"Whoa!" Fay's comment drew attention to the fact that Wilson had just jumped quite high into the air, out from in the middle of the robots, and had landed near to a rock, which he quickly ducked behind. The robots still relied on visual sensors and had not noticed him yet.

"That was quite a jump," Peppy commented, "looks like he's suited to ground combat."

"It's only the second group, let's watch him for a bit longer," Fox said. Krystal was thinking on something that she had noticed.

'I could swear I saw the air around his feet compress before he jumped,' she thought, 'I wonder what he's thinking.' Krystal began to tune out the other's emotions and began focusing on the thoughts of the fox in the courtyard.

Wilson ejected the spent clip from the machine gun and quietly slid a new on into the gun until her heard a 'click' which confirmed that the clip was in place.

'Making that jump was risky with them watching me, I'll have to be more careful in the future,' he thought to himself, not knowing that Krystal was focusing on hearing his thoughts at that moment. The fox took a quick look over the rock and saw that the robots were all still close together. Smirking at this, he grabbed one of his grenades, primed it and tossed it over his shoulder. He waited in the satisfying "KABOOM" and he looked out to a smoking hole with the pieces of the robots strewn in quite an area. He smirked but then lifted his machine gun in preparation for the next wave of enemies.

--

Fara emerged from her room having just managed to get Todd to fall asleep. She felt grateful that her son had decided not to be a handful that day because it gave her some time to relax. Fara went up to the living room and found Miyu sitting on the couch and reading a book.

"Hey, Miyu," the lynx looked up and saw Fara.

"Hey Fara, are you done with your kid?" Miyu asked.

"Yes, he just needed to be fed."

"I see, so how's being a mother working out?"

"It's not as bad as it's made out to be," as Fara said this she sat down next to the lynx, "but it's no walk in the park. Usually Todd needs us constantly, especially at night, but Fox's worry about him being a good father is actually more helpful than you might think."

"In what way?"

"He's volunteering to help with almost everything, well except feeding because at this stage only I can do that. I just hope that he gets more confident, I would like a second child and I don't have as much time as I used to."

"He'll come around, I haven't known you two for long but I'm sure Fox won't mind a second child if you don't try and force it on him." Fara smiled.

"I'll try to remember that. So what are you reading?"

"Mossflower, it's a prequel to the book Redwall."

"Oh, you mean that series about the creatures living in medieval times, does that qualify as fantasy." Miyu shrugged.

"In a way, with things like ghosts and a sword that is seemingly indestructible, but with the things Fox has told me that he's encountered it's hard to say if it is or not."

"I see, you think Todd might like those books when he gets older?"

"Possibly, they're children's books in general but I do enjoy them."

"I see. Miyu, have you ever considered becoming a mother?" the tomboyish lynx was taken aback by her question.

"Me, a mother? I doubt it; I'm pretty happy how I am right now."

"Well what if you meet someone who is to you like Fox is to me?"

"Maybe, but I'll wait for that to happen before I even try to decide."

--

Wilson had destroyed eight waves of robots by this time and the courtyard was strewn with robot remains. The fox was running low on ammo; he had no spare clips for his machine gun and only one grenade left. He was now up against a large tank like robot that lacked a turret. As the robots main guns recharged, Wilson ran behind it and fired at one spot on its back until he had blasted a hole just large enough for a grenade. Taking a chance, he primed his last grenade and threw inside. Ducking behind a rock he counted down the seconds until the grenade went off with a satisfying "BANG". Looking over at the remains of the robot, he saw that the grenade had blown off a large amount of its rear section, rendering it useless.

"Alright, just one last wave to go, are you ready for this?" Wilson nodded towards the observation booth where Peppy was waiting for his confirmation. He waited and heard a loud noise and turned to see a robot roughly 2.5 times his height with tank treads instead of legs and a bulky humanoid torso with a head that appeared to be merged with its torso, and large arms that each ended in a gatling gun, which he knew would fire stun rounds. Taking initiative, Wilson began to hose the robot with rounds from his machinegun but it was only a very short period before the gun clicked and he realized that he was out of ammo.

"Damnit," he swore to himself as he tossed both the empty machine gun and the now useless weapons belt, which he had detached, away from him. The large robot took aim at him and began to fire off numerous shock blasts at him. Wilson was able to dodge most of them but one struck his arm sending a powerful electric jolt through his body. Though he had had quite a bit taken out of him from the other waves he was not just going to stop and give up. Ducking behind a rock and momentarily hiding from the large robot's assault, and he knew he couldn't hide for long as it could track him with other sensors.

In the viewing booth Peppy, Fox, and Fay were quite impressed with Wilson's progress; Krystal had noticed but was more focused on listening to the crossbred fox's thoughts.

"I must say, he's very good in ground combat. Very few people can make it this far alone but no one has been able to take on that last one alone; it's hard enough in groups," Peppy said.

"I guess, but I don't think that he's going to give up," Fay replied.

'No, he's not,' Krystal thought to herself, 'he's going to do something.' She began to focus harder on his thoughts.

Wilson knew it would not be long before the robot started attacking him again.

"Guess I'll have to," he said, pushing his sword just out of its sheath, "I just hope this works." Running from his hiding place into the full view of the robot, he pressed the blade of his sword against the inside of its sheath and used the extra power to draw his sword with a large amount of speed in the direction of his opponent. To everyone's surprise except his own, and Krystal who had been reading his mind, a wave of fire flew from the blade and struck the left gatling gun forearm of the robot. The fire was hot enough that it melted the barrels of the gatling gun making it useless.

"Did he just shoot fire from his sword?" Fox asked in surprise.

"It's magic," Krystal replied, "I've been reading his mind. Not only was that fire blast magic but that jump he preformed earlier had something to do with making the air underneath him compress the air under his feet to increase the power of his jump."

As they spoke Wilson ran at the robot's remaining gatling gun on its right hand. Though tired he dodged the shots and compressed the air under his feet. Using the compressed air like a springboard, Wilson jumped at the gatling gun on the robot's right arm with his sword over his head. He swung down hard when he was close enough and severed the front half of the gun. Wilson landed and heard the satisfying sound of the weapon hitting the ground. The fox sheathed his sword and was relieved to find that the robot had stopped attacking him. Before he could question this he heard Peppy's voice over the speakers.

"That's enough, that robot is costly to fully repair and disarming it is enough." Wilson sighed in relief and made his way to the door as the shield went down. When he arrived he was greeted by the other four. They all immediately noticed that Wilson looked drained, more so then they thought he should be.

"Good thing that gun barrels are hollow, didn't think I could pull that off if it was solid," Wilson commented.

"Why didn't you tell us you could use magic?" Krystal asked.

"Well, mostly because I don't like telling people that I can, because it usually causes problems. But Krystal, how did you know that was magic?" Krystal smiled at Wilson's question.

"I can use magic too, through that staff I used to duel against you."

"You do, it must be exhausting to use it."

"Not really, I draw power from the energy gem on my staff so it doesn't affect me all that much."

"Well my magic draws power from me so if I use it too often, or I use complicated or powerful techniques, I might collapse from exhaustion. I feel drained just from those three attacks. In case you're wondering I can use fire and wind magic, fire more so than wind."

"So is that what the source of the heat increase was in the gym two weeks ago?" Fay asked.

"Yeah, I was trying to practise low energy fire use that day, but I stopped when the sensors picked it up," Wilson replied.

"So, how strong is that sword?" Fox asked.

"Pretty strong; it was given to me by my grandfather at the end of my training and I've used it ever since. It's light enough for me to use and somehow it has never needed to be repaired once since I got it; its blade hasn't even dulled."

"It must be quite strong to cut metal without dulling," Peppy observed.

"It is, I can even cut rock with it but it still takes some strength to force it through stronger stuff." After hearing Wilson say this, Fox chuckled slightly.

"Well that settles it, after seeing that you have quite a high survival rate in space and your impressive ground combat skills, let me sabe the first to say 'Welcome to the Star Fox Team, Wilson Kitsune.'" Fox extended his right hand hand. Surprised and relieved, Wilson grasped his hand and shook it.

"Thanks, Fox, this means a lot."

"Think nothing of it, and after seeing you in that ground battle, I guess you'll be our ground combat specialist, we do need someone who's better suited to ground combat."

"Great," Fay said, smiling.

"And with me as the team's telepath, looks like Star Fox may be stronger than ever," Krystal added. Wilson gawked at her.

"You're a telepath?" he asked. Krystal then remembered that she had never actually told Wilson that she could read minds.

"Yes, though I can only read specific thoughts if I focus on a particular person's thoughts, otherwise I just get their most powerful conscious thoughts and their emotions clearly," the blue vixen explained.

"Well that clears some things up, I guess you figured out I could use magic before it was obvious."

"Yes, I sort of did."

"Well at least I know now."

"Then let's get back to the Great Fox, we should tell Fara and Miyu that you're now officially a member."

"Well then get going, I'll handle things here," Peppy said.

"Thanks, Peppy, see you some other time," Fox called back to the hare as the four members of Star Fox made their way out of the building. Peppy turned to look at the mess left by Wilson's battle session and sighed, turning on the PA system.

"Could the repair crews for the ground battle training area please come down here, this place needs to be fixed and cleaned up before it has to be used again."

On their way back to the shuttle Krystal asked Wilson.

"So, do you think you'll like being with Star Fox?"

"Sure, but still tomorrow's another day," Wilson replied.

'And another day to get to know Krystal better; maybe I should Fara's advice, she is kinda pretty after all and smart, and not too bad with a staff.' Wilson looked ahead to the shuttle, not noticing Krystal blush.

She had been reading his thoughts.

--

Well time for some extra notes.

The battle scene in the training area was difficult as I was trying to both show that Wilson was competent in ground combat and not make him seem overly powerful. I had to mentally rewrite the scene several times to make him be shown not to be overpowered and ever remove an extra part at the end that would have pushed him past that point.

I hope that you like this chapter; it was harder to write than the others.


	5. Pink Petals

Chapter 5: Pink Petals

Not much of a note but I wanted to point out that in my opinion there is a two year gap between Adventures and Assault, and a one year gap between Assault and Command, I'm just adding this so that there is not confusion at a later point.

Chapter 5: Pink Petals

The Great Fox 3 remained in orbit for another week while Fara and Fox got their son used to the ship. When the ship left orbit, Wilson admitted that he couldn't wait to fly on a mission with Star Fox; ever since he had joined the Star Fox team Wilson had carried his katana on him at almost all times, just in case.

The Star Fox team was back in space and for two months, they flew missions; on several occasions Wilson proved his worth in ground combat using modern ranged weapons as well as his Katana and magic taking Fox's place for on foot combat situations. One particular incident on Fortuna, about a month after their departure, showed just how skilled Wilson was in ground combat.

A group of hereto-unknown pirates had taken over one of the Cornerian armoury bases on the outskirts of the main urban areas. While the base had a large number of both hand and ship mounted weapons in storage the personnel were able to lock down the storage areas before the pirates had killed all of them meaning that the pirates were now holed up in the base while trying to unlock the storage areas. As they were now active again, Brigadier General Dante Spiran had hired the Star Fox Team to free the base, without destroying it. In order to evade detection the Great Fox 3 had remained in orbit while sending Wilson down in the Gladius, which Fay had let him use as it was in good enough condition to act as a transport. Wilson set down about two kilometres from the base and climbed out of the fighter's cockpit; he was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with a short-sleeved flight jacket, that was undone, overtop as well as blue jeans and brown approach boots with an ammo belt around the waste for storing extra clips. At the moment he was lying in the prone position on a cliff like protrusion of one of the hills roughly half a kilometre from the base; he was observing the base through the scope of his sniper rifle; he also had a standard issue charging blaster in its holster on the right of his ammo belt and his sword strapped at his side, as always. As the area around the base was full of hills it was easy to hide if he kept his distance, the area surrounding the base for about a 400m radius had been flattened to allow the base to be built, and he was careful not to let the guards be aware of his presence

"Only two guards and a shielded door," he mused to himself. The two guards in question were an orange tabby feline and a red avian with some yellow markings on his body; both were male. Wilson zoomed in closer on the door and gave it a good analysis. The door was sealed, most likely from the inside, and heavily reinforced.

'_There's no way we can hack or rewire that door in the time we have,' _he thought to himself, knowing that the people inside might eventually open the weapon storage areas and force them to destroy the base. Lowering the rifle he slid backwards down the slope of the cliff until he was far enough down that the people below wouldn't see him, then got up and moved quickly back towards the landing zone. It took him a good 30 minutes to make his way back. Once there he contacted the Great Fox.

"Great Fox 3, this is Wilson Kitsune, respond."

"This is Fox, I hear you, Wilson. What's the situation?"

"I've scoped out the base and it looks like most of the pirates are inside as there are only two guards by the entrance. The main door is locked from the inside and I can't get in without blowing the door," Wilson paused for a moment, thinking things over, before once again speaking into his wrist communicator, "I'm gonna need some help on this, send Krystal down will you?"

"I'm here, Wilson," Krystal's voice replaced Fox's on the communicator, "just tell me what you need and I'll bring it down."

"Right," Wilson said, "bring down a machine gun with extra clips, any weapon you want to use with all the ammo it can carry, some charges to blow the door, and make sure you bring your staff as we may have to resort to hand-to-hand combat at some point."

"Alright," Miyu's voice then replaced Krystal's on the comm.

"Wilson, if I may suggest something. Once inside you two should split up. With the exception of the loading bay on the other side of the base the hallways of these bases are not that large and have no cover for firefights; fighting in the same corridor will just make the two of you a bigger target and make it harder to engage in melee combat without hitting each other."

"Thanks, Miyu, I'll remember that."

"Alright, Wilson, Krystal should be down in about 10 minutes with the equipment," Fox said over the comm.

"Right, I'll wait here for her, just hurry because there's no telling how long before those pirates get the main weapons storage room open," Wilson shut his wrist communicator off, sat down on the ground, and waited for Krystal to arrive. He thought about his relationship with the blue vixen as he waited. He had learned a lot about her in the last month and he knew that she was a kind individual but was no slouch in combat; Wilson had never given any relationships enough time to advance, save for one person who he had not seen since leaving Fichina at the end of his training, and now that he had settled in as a member of the Star Fox Team, maybe he should try and get closer to Krystal.

Wilson's thought were interrupted by the sound of the Great Fox's shuttle's engines as the transport set down. Wilson watched as the shuttle's door opened and Krystal appeared in the doorway. In the week before the left Corneria, Krystal had discovered that her blue catsuit no longer fit her well as she had apparently grown a bit since the last time she had worn it; when she had tried it on it had fit but it was tight and, as a result, restricted her movement and was very uncomfortable. She had thrown the restrictive suit away and had spent some time on Corneria searching for something a bit more convenient.

At that moment, Krystal was wearing her chosen clothing for a mission: a greyish-green t-shirt, a brown cargo vest overtop of the shirt, olive drab camo fatigue style shorts which had a belt for storing her charging blaster, and boots which looked like they military surplus but still light enough to wear comfortably, if that were even possible. Krystal also had her staff stored on her back, which fit into a clasp on the back of her vest; her vest had places to stored extra ammunition for weapons. The blue vixen had discovered that this clothing allowed her to move more easily than her previous clothing had.

"I've got the equipment in here," she said.

"Right, let's get ready," Wilson entered the shuttle and picked up the machine gun clips, sticking them on his belt, and then grabbed the machine gun. Everyone had noticed that despite its lower power than most weapons Wilson preferred to use the machine gun, as it was lighter than most other weapons allowing him to move more easily. Wilson also picked up the two charges that Krystal had brought to blow the door. Krystal picked up the gatling gun that she had brought for herself and made sure that she had enough ammo for the mission. Krystal looked over at Wilson and asked.

"Are you ready?"

"As much as I'll ever be, let's get moving," Wilson and Krystal disembarked from the shuttle and Krystal followed Wilson as he led her towards the occupied armoury base.

It took time for them to get near the base and when they did, Wilson let Krystal look over the base through the sniper rifle's scope. When she had finished she backed down the slope until she was on the same level as Wilson, hidden by the cliff.

"So, why don't you just take them out, I've seen your marksmanship skills and you could hit them easily," Wilson merely sighed to the vixen's inquiry.

"The sniper rifle has a slow firing rate, so slow that if I hit or miss then one of them will be able to alert the rest of the base or at least run from my firing sight. I would like you to read their minds and let me know if one will be more likely to run, rather than alert the base, or if they are likely to be susceptible to intimidation."

"Alright just give me a moment," Krystal began to concentrate on the minds of the two guards. After a moment, Krystal spoke up.

"The avian is definitely the higher up of the two; he would remain calmer if the feline were killed. However, the feline will probably panic and if I can get within weapons range, I should be able to keep him from alerting the base if you can take out the avian. Not only that but it seems like he wants to quit this group; if given the chance to run and leave the group he most likely would."

"Alright, I'll stay here until you're in position. Just give me some sort of signal when you're ready."

"Alright, I'll let you known on the communicator," Krystal then began moving through the bumpy landscape, unnoticed by the guards. Wilson crawled to his lookout point again, careful not to draw the attention of the guards, and looked through the scope of his rifle. He waited for what seemed like ages to get some confirmation from Krystal. He felt like his body was starting to harden when his wrist communicator went off.

"Wilson," Krystal's hushed voice came, "don't respond, just look to your left of the base. I'm focusing on your thoughts so just let me know if you can see me by thinking so."

Understanding what she meant, the crossbred fox moved the scope of her rifle to the left and zoomed until he noticed the blue vixen, holding her gatling gun in a ready position, pressed against the outside wall of the base.

'_I can see you,'_ he thought consciously, knowing Krystal would hear it, _'just nod if you can here this.' _As Wilson watched Krystal, he was sure he saw her nod. Seeing this he consciously thought _'I'm going to take out the avian, when you hear my shot make sure to move in and stop the feline.'_ Seeing Krystal nod slightly, Wilson moved his rifle's barrel to the right so that the sights passed over the feline and came to rest over the red avian's head.

Martin, the feline guard, was nervous. He had joined the pirate group with high hopes but all the older and more experienced members of the pirate group treated him poorly and all he was assigned guard duty along with the red avian, whose name he had forgotten. He looked over at his superior and sighed quietly, wishing something would happen. He was about to speak up to the avian, when his superior's head was pierced by a bullet, causing him to fall to the ground with blood seeping from the back of his head. Panicking, he was about to radio to the inside of the base for help; he had the hand-held communicator to his mouth and was about to turn it on when voice to his right said.

"Stop right there, drop that radio or I'll put more holes in you than a dartboard." Mark turned and saw a blue vixen holding a large gatling gun pointed directly at him. More out of fear than obedience Mark dropped the radio but made no further movements.

"Drop your weapon," Krystal ordered the feline. The feline dropped his energy rifle and backed away from her, until the barrel of a rifle pressed into his back.

"Now I suggest you run, before we decide to shoot you." Not bothering to see who was behind him, Martin turned and ran in the direction of the nearest city. While he ran, he thought repeatedly to himself that he would decide to try to find honest work this time instead of joining a pirate group.

--

Back at the base, Krystal stared at Wilson, a little confused.

"How did you get here so fast? It's half a kilometre to where you shot that guy from." Wilson smirked, lowering the now empty sniper rifle and dropping it.

"I used my magic, I've learned to reduce the air pressure in front of myself and create spurts of air under my feet in order to run and speeds most people would find impossible. I feel a little drained but I'll be fine for this operation," as Wilson spoke, he took out the two charges and set them on the door.

"I see," Krystal said, swinging her large gun over her back. Wilson set the timer on the charges for 30 seconds.

"Now, on my order hit the arming button and run around the corner, we don't want to be here when they go off." Krystal nodded and stepped in front of one of the charges, while the other fox stood in front of the other.

"Now!" both foxes pressed the arming button then ran around to the side of the base where Krystal had hidden while waiting for Wilson to shoot the avian. They waited, both covering their ears until the charges went off. The sound from the blast was deafening, even through their covered ears, and they felt the earth shaking from the force of the explosion. Both foxes then raised their rapid-fire weapons, darted around the side of the base, and ran inside. After going less than 20 meters into the base, the two of them found themselves at a crossroad in the corridor, with one going off to the right and another off to the left.

"Miyu said we should split up, just in case we have to fight in close quarters," Wilson said, "so I'll right and you go left."

"We'll meet up before going after the ones in the central control room," Krystal said. She was about to run down her hallway but first looked over her shoulder and said, "be careful, Wilson."

"I will, Krystal. And same to you," the vixen smiled at Wilson's response then turned and ran down the left hallway while Wilson ran down the right one.

--

Vergil Kandles (pronounced: Khan-dless) was the leader of his mostly unknown pirate group; he had made the daring attack on the Cornerian armoury in hopes of gaining access to the armoury and outfitting his group with heavy weapons for larger raids. Unfortunately, one of the Armoury's guards had managed to lock down the weapon storage bunker inside the main base, the only door to which was located in the control room, which was where Vergil was now. Vergil was a stoat with mostly white fur in his late 30s, with short white hair and wearing a black uniform like outfit with a blue coat over top of it; he was 180cm tall and had brown eyes.

For the last four hours the pirates had been patrolling the interior of the base—just incase any of the facility's guards had survived—while Vergil and his half a dozen elite guards were holed up inside the control room, trying to get the main weapons bunker open. When the explosion at the entrance had gone off he had become both concerned and agitated. Reports began to come in form all over the base as he learned that two Foxes from the Star Fox Team had been moving through his base and slowly but efficiently eliminating every guard and member of his pirates within the base.

"Hurry up and get that door open!" he commanded two of his elite guard, who were trying to hack into the computerised lock. Though he was worried, he was ticked that his guards had failed to keep the assailants out of the base.

--

It had been some time since Krystal and Wilson had begun clearing out the base; they had actually made very good progress. Now Wilson was walking slowly down a corridor when he heard footsteps around the next the corner. Pressing himself against the wall, he moved closer to the bend. Checking to make sure that he had enough ammunition in his machine gun, he suddenly jumped out into the corridor and was about to fire when a voice said.

"Wilson wait it's me!" Krystal stood her hands held up in defence and with her gatling gun slung across her back. Wilson lowered his gun and sighed.

"Sorry," he apologized, feeling a bit ashamed for not recognising her before he had almost plugged her with rounds.

"It's alright, I'm a bit on edge too," Krystal responded to both his words and his thoughts,  
"I read your mind around the corner so I knew it was you. Good thing I did or one of us might be dead."

"I know," Wilson said.

'_I don't think I could like with myself if I was responsible for Krystal's death.'_ Krystal smiled as she heard this thought but did not comment on it. Instead, Wilson spoke up, taking a more serious voice.

"So, could you check the thoughts in this base and tell me where the rest of them are?"

"Yes, just a moment," Krystal closed her eyes and began concentrating. After a while Krystal spoke.

"I can sense 27 other people in this building."

"Where are they?" Wilson asked.

"I can hear them thinking something about the main control room."

"Are any of them near us?"

Krystal shook her head "No, they all retreated after our attack on the base."

"Ok," Wilson raised his wrist communicator and called the Great Fox.

"Great Fox come in, this is Wilson Kitsune." A moment later Miyu's face appeared on the communicator's screen.

"This is Miyu, how is the mission going, Wilson?" Wilson glanced around before replying.

"We've managed to clear out most of the base and all of the remaining guards have retreated to the main control room, now we need a map of this base so we can find them before they get access to weapons bunker."

"Alright, just give me a moment, there!" Wilson's communicator then beeped, showing him that he had received the map from the large ship.

"Thank, Miyu, any advice for taking the control room?"

"Just that you should take out the most targets you can as quickly as possible; the pirates are bound to get more desperate when there are fewer of them left."

"Alright, talk to you later." Wilson shut off his communicator and brought up the map of the base.

"Krystal," he said.

"Yes?"

"We should take this route to get close to the control room," he said as he used his finger to "draw" a path on the map. "How much ammo do you have left?"

"About half a clip, and you?" Krystal asked.

"Practically none, we may have to resort to hand-to-hand combat or magic to finish this." The two of them began jogging in the indicated direction. En route to the control room Krystal spoke up to Wilson.

"Wilson, did you notice that all of the pirates were using old projectile weapons instead of energy based ones?"

"Yes I noticed; that must be why they are raiding this base. It also makes injury a greater risk as bullet could get stuck in you instead of just leaving energy burns," Wilson pointed out.

'_Now we better not speak up, we're getting close to the control room so just focused on my thoughts,'_ he thought consciously to Krystal, who nodded in response.

The two foxes reached a T-shaped corridor and slowed to a creeping walk as they heard some minor conversation from the last of the pirates around a 90-degree bend to the left in the middle of their corridor. Krystal put a hand on Wilson's shoulder as they reached the bend in the corridor to stop him from moving any further. Krystal closed her eyes and began to search for the minds of the pirates who were still alive in the base. After a moment, she opened her eyes and made some gestures to Wilson using a crude sign language; it took Wilson a moment but he figured out that the blue vixen was saying that there were 20 armed-guards around the corner. After interpreting this, Wilson looked down for a moment and then drew his sword.

Krystal had never gotten a good look at Wilson's Katana before so she took a moment to examine it. The handle was simply made with black fabric of some sort weaved around the handle to gripping power. The sword blade had its cutting edge on the outcurve and a dull incurve coloured black; the cutting edge was silver but it had a red pattern on it that looked like red fire was coming off the front end so that when it moved through the air, it looked as thought fire was dancing along the sword blade. She blinked and then noticed that in addition to the artistic fire-like pattern along the blade fire was starting to appear on the sword's blade.

'_I'm going to use a large scale magic attack,'_ Wilson thought to her, _'this is going to use a lot of my energy and I might be unconscious after I do this so you will have to finish the mission on your own. Don't protest,'_ he added, _'we need to take out those guards quickly and I have confidence that you will be able to deal with the leader and his guards easily, trust me'_

Wilson took a deep breath and jumped around the corner. Both of them heard one of the guards shout "Over there!" right before Wilson swung his sword horizontally and sent out a large wave of fire. Immediately he followed the first wave with another, and another, and then he began swinging his sword in multiple directions each time sending a wave of fire down the corridor. After 12th wave he stepped back then jumped forwards, swinging his Katana down in the progress and shouting "HELL'S CREST" as he landed, the katana blade struck the floor and sent a massive wave of fire down the corridor.

Wilson staggered, panting from exertion after using up so much energy. His right arm, still holding his sword, fell to his side. Wilson then dropped his sword and collapsed onto his knees, and then forwards using his arms to hold himself in a four-legged position. Seeing this, Krystal dashed forwards and immediately asked.

"Are you alright?"

"Just drained," Wilson responded, while panting as Krystal helped him backwards into a sitting position against the wall, "sorry…but you'll…have to…finish this one…by yourself." Wilson took a deep breath and began to speak normally, "There shouldn't be more than seven left if you read the minds correctly." Krystal thought a moment then lifted her gatling gun off her back and set it next to Wilson. She then drew her staff from her back and extended it to its full length.

"I'll need more agility in there," she explained to Wilson, as she retrieved his sword and carefully pushed it into the scabbard at his left, "so I'll have to rely on my magic and staff, the gatling gun is too heavy and will just make it harder for me to evade attacks."

"Alright, just cool off the corridor before you charge in," Krystal blinked and then took her first look down the corridor to the main control room. She was very surprised as there was nothing but scorched metal and some piles of ash; the metal walls, floor, and ceiling of the hallway looked partially melted, being disfigured as gravity pulled the softened metal towards earth. She had not realized just how hot the fire from Wilson's attacks was. The crossbred fox took a deep breath and spoke quickly without panting.

"My fire is hot enough to melt metal but not to the point of liquefying it and using that much at once leaves me almost defenceless," he then inhaled and exhaled deeply before saying, "be…careful."

"I will," Krystal faced down the corridor and checked her staff's remaining power. "Full power, I can do this." She held her staff forwards and began t spin it like a baton. After a moment, a small breeze accompanied by some snow blew down the corridor, rapidly cooling the incredibly hot metal and solidifying it; after about 15 seconds she stopped. She gripped her staff in a defensive position and began to move down the corridor slowly, ready to face the last seven pirates she knew were waiting to ambush her.

--

As soon as he heard the attack in the corridor leading to the control room, Vergil ordered his six elite guards to hide throughout the room to ambush anyone who came through. Vergil carried a pistol that should have been an antique and was hiding behind one of the control room's computer panels. One of his guards, a blaze ferret, was standing by the entrance to the room with his rifle raised over his head so that he could club an assailant unconscious as soon as they came in the door.

Krystal was well aware of the threats in the control room, as she had been listening to the thoughts of the pirates for some time. She took a deep breath and dove into the room. The blaze ferret that had been waiting to club her swung down but missed her and Krystal swung her staff sideways knocking his head into the wall and leaving him unconscious.

One of the elite guards, a grey rabbit, charged her firing his rifle wildly. Krystal dodged and got into close range. She used her staff to spray him with her ice blast and the terrified rabbit watched as his body turned to ice. Krystal swung hard and shattered the ice statue that had been alive a few moments ago. The remaining four guards all emerged from their hiding places and began firing at the blue vixen. Krystal felt a bullet graze her left shoulder and the rounded in the direction of the shot and launched a bolt of fire from her staff at the person who had just hit her. The fire bolt flew across the room and struck the German shepherd who had shot her in the chest, throwing him to the ground either dead or unconscious. Krystal shot another firebolt at a ferret who got too close for her liking and disabled him as well and while a lioness across the room was reloading her rifle, Krystal drew her charging blaster with her left hand and fired four shots at her to delay her reloading, before dispatching her with a level one green charged shot. The last guard, an avian, did not take a chance at reloading and instead charged her, drawing a combat knife. Krystal sidestepped his slashes, put her gun back in its holster, and hit out at his hand, forcing him to shout in pain and drop the weapon. Krystal hit him from the left with her staff and then spun backwards knocking him on the chin several times before putting all of her strength into a swing and knocking him flying several feet before he struck a chair in the room and hit the floor, some blood pooling where he landed.

Krystal was panting from exertion and slumped slightly while standing but unfortunately she let her guard down; a moment later she felt a bullet strike her in her left shoulder. She spun around to see the stoat, Vergil, aiming a rather old handgun at her. Vergil fired off three more shots, two of which she was able to dodge but the third grazed her right ear tip. Unable to retaliate, owing to the risk of being shot in a vital organ, Krystal swung her staff in a horizontal arc creating a large cloud of mist and masking her from view; she used the time that they were hidden to dash behind a control panel, which hid her form view. She collapsed her staff, put in on her back, and noticed that shed was bleeding on her left shoulder where she'd been shot.

"I see you managed to eliminate all of my guards," the stoat shouted as the fog began to clear, "but I'm going to get rid of you and that friend of yours who came with you. I'll take the weapons from this base and make sure to gather enough followers to take all of the supplies we want or need." Unknown to Krystal, Vergil had seen where she had run and was approaching her as quietly as possible; he shouted the lines he was speaking all over the room so that his voice echoed and made it sound as if he was everywhere.

'_This stoat is insane,'_ Krystal thought to herself. Krystal kept quiet and tried to figure out where the stoat was by listening to his voice, as her injuries and his yelling kept her form concentrating on his thoughts, but couldn't as his voice echoed making it impossible to pinpoint his location.

--

While Krystal had been fighting the guards, Wilson had discovered that he still had some strength left. Drawing his charging blaster, he crawled across the room until at the wall of the corridor leading to the control room. Using the wall as support, Wilson pushed himself into a standing position and moved along the wall, while leaning against it, to the doorway of the control room. He reached the end of the corridor in time to see Krystal create the cloud of mist; owing to his position, he was able to catch a glimpse of her dashing to her hiding place. When he saw that the stoat was not looking his way and was quickly approaching Krystal's hiding place, he drew his charging blaster and held it up in both hands, aiming at Vergil's back, as the stoat had not noticed him being too preoccupied with taking care of Krystal.

'_I've only got one shot at this so I have to make it count,'_ he thought to himself as he steadied his hands and centered the aiming sights of the gun on Vergil's back. The stoat was at the control panel and had his gun aiming at Krystal's head.

"Now you die!" the stoat said. Krystal looked up and saw the stoat about to shoot her. The sound of an energy pulse from across the room caused her to flinch. Three more energy shots rang out and Krystal, realising she was still alive, looked up and saw the stoat, Vergil, slumped over the control panel, both arms hanging limp. He was dead.

"Got him," Krystal stood up and saw Wilson holding his charging blaster, which he had clearly just fired, pointing in her direction.

Wilson's arms slumped to his side and he collapsed, exhausted from the effort and Krystal dashed over to him, oblivious to her own injuries, and helped him back into a sitting position.

"Are you alright?" The blue vixen asked, concerned.

"Yeah, just tired, oh," he noticed the blood coming from both her left shoulder and left hand, "You got shot!"

"I'll be fine," Krystal winced, seemingly realising for the first time that she was actually injured, "But you can barely stand, I'll get you out of here." Krystal took Wilson's blaster, stuck it in the holster at Wilson's side, and lifted him up so she was supporting him on her right, where she wasn't injured. In this position, Krystal was able to help Wilson exit the base.

While the two of them limp walked out of the base, Wilson asked.

"Are you sure that you're alright, Krystal?" the fact that his voice and feelings were full of concern made Krystal blush slightly.

"I'll be fine once I get patched up. Here we are," she added as they arrived outside the base. The vixen raised her communicator, while supporting the crossbred fox, and pressed the button to call the Great Fox 3 with the tip of her nose.

"This is the Great Fox, are you alright," the voice was Fox's.

"We finished the mission, the pirates are all taken care of but you might want to get General Spiran to bring in a clean up crew," Krystal replied. "I'm took a couple of bullets in my left arm and Wilson's exhausted, so could you arrange for us to get out if here?"

"I thought ahead enough to recall the shuttle and the Gladius, I'll used the transfer system to send you the shuttle. Don't worry," he added, "this one is more reliable than the one you're familiar with." As the transmission cut off, a cylindrical beam of data descended from space and deposited the Great Fox's shuttle on the ground. Krystal half-carried, half-dragged the weary todd into the shuttle and set him in one of the ship's seats, strapped him in, then flew the ship off the planet and into space. Along the way, Krystal glanced back at Wilson a number of times evoking a strange look from him.

"Is there something sticking to me?" he asked.

Krystal shook her head, "It's not that, I'm just glad that you're alright."

"You should be more concerned about yourself, you took some hits back there, I just need some rest." Touched by his concern, Krystal turned back to the front as she guided the shuttle back into the Great Fox's hangar.

Several minutes later in the Great Fox's infirmary, Fara, who had taken on the additional role of the team's medic and was wearing rubber gloves, was checking over the two foxes who had just returned. Fox had come to see them and make sure they were all right before going to talk to General Dante Spiran about the payment for liberating the base from the pirates.

"You're lucky, Krystal," Fara said as she checked her injuries, "Those bullet didn't hit anything vital but I'll have to take them out. Wilson," she turned to the exhausted Fox, "Can you make it to your room?"

"Not on my own, could you help me again, Miyu?"

Miyu had been standing in the room as she had helped Wilson to get up from the shuttle to the infirmary. She nodded in response to Wilson's request.

"Alright," she moved over to the exhausted fox, lifted him onto her right shoulder, and supported him as they walked out of the infirmary and back to his room.

Fara turned back to Krystal and said, "Krystal, please remove your shirt, I need to get at the back of our shoulder." Krystal nodded and did as Fara requested, leaving her with only her upper body undergarments remaining; she flinched as she still had part of a bullet buried in her hand and shoulder.

"Now please, lie down on your front." As Krystal lay down, Fara picked up a pair of needle nosed surgical pliers and said, "I'm sorry I can't give you antiseptic but we should get that bullet out now before the wound is infected, but please try to stay still because this will hurt."

"Alright," the blue vixen said, gritting her teeth and gripping the side of the table she was lying on hard. Fara stood next to her and pushed her pliers into the wound on her shoulder, causing Krystal to yelp in pain as Fara dug around and eventually pulled out the bullet and dropped it into a metal pan she had set aside.

"Ouch!"

"Sorry, now give me your left hand, I have to get the bullet out of there as well," Krystal let Fara take her stinging hand and winced as Fara once again dug the bullet out with the pliers and dropped it in the pan with the other bullet. "There, now I have to clean and dress these wounds before they get infected." As Fara cleaned Krystal's wounds the two Vixens conversed.

"So, Fara, What do you think of Wilson?" Krystal asked as Fara dressed her left shoulder. The Fennec thought for a bit before responding.

"He seems like a good person, why are you asking?"

"Well," Krystal averted her eyes from Fara as she finished with her shoulder and began to dress her left hand, "I was just curious."

"You have feelings for him don't you?" Fara asked her, which caused Krystal to blush.

"Maybe, I'm just nervous about trying to start another relationship; my last two relationships ended badly and…" Krystal trailed off as Fara finished dressing her wounds and sat down next to her.

"Krystal, I can see how you might not have the confidence to try again, but you should give it another chance. If you don't you might lose any chance with him and I can tell he respects you."

"I guess so," noticing that she was still a bit unsure, Fara put her arm around Krystal and spoke as though Krystal were her daughter.

"Give it time, I don't know how things are where you come from but did you think that maybe Wilson was nervous to tell you or admit it to himself. Just spend some time with him and if he feels the same way then tell him how you feel; he can't read minds like you so you'll have to let him know yourself, and please try to remember that actions speak louder than words, or thoughts for that matter."

Krystal stared at Fara for a moment before asking, "What do you mean by that, Fara?" The fennec smiled at Krystal.

"I mean that maybe you should not try and interpret his thoughts but rather, judge him by what he does," smiled and said, "Maybe you could try just 'turning off' your telepathic and empathic abilities when he's around and get to know him more personally." Krystal blinked, and then stood up.

"Thanks for the advice, Fara, I'll try that." The blue vixen left the infirmary to go and sleep off her injuries and Fara shook her head softly.

"Krystal, I hope I can help you two. I better go check on Todd." Fara cleaned off the bed Krystal had been sitting one, washed her hands, and left to check on her son.

Krystal arrived at her room and was so exhausted from the events that day that she fell asleep almost immediately.

For the next few months, life on the Great Fox 3 was somewhat uneventful however; everyone could see that, after the incident on Fortuna, Wilson and Krystal were beginning to grow quite close. Taking Fara's advice, Krystal had started trying to get to know Wilson better by spending time with him; while she couldn't shut her telepathic and empathic powers off, she tried not to pay attention to the sensations she got from her powers.

Unfortunately, seven months after the events on Fortuna, Wilson took the Gladius out into space combat despite Fay's protests. While Wilson was a skilled survivalist pilot, years without proper maintenance meant that his fighter barely held together through to fight to make it back to the Great Fox 3 intact; the ship's shields had failed during the fight and there was a hole in its right wing. The old ship was sitting in the docking bay where Krystal, Miyu, and Fara (as Fara had weaned Todd and Fox insisted on watching their son this time) were watching as Fay vented her spleen on Wilson, who was backing away from the ranting cocker spaniel holding his hands up in defence.

"I can't believe you, I told you about 20 times not to try and use that old fighter in battle but you took it out anyways despite the fact that you could have used one of the available Arwing Mk IIIs. Now the Gladius is in worse shape than it was before and there is no way I can make it space worthy again. You're lucky to be alive after its shields short circuited, that ship should be in a museum, no matter how well it's built it can't survive any more space combat."

"Sorry, look…"

"Look nothing," Fay interrupted Wilson' attempted apology, "come and see me in an hour when I've calmed down." Fay stormed out of hangar, leaving Wilson nervous, Fara and Krystal embarrassed to see her like that, and Miyu exasperated.

"I'll go talk to her, just stay away from her," the Lynx said. Miyu turned and left the hangar, following Fay.

"I've never seen her like that before," Wilson said.

"She gets like that if we are irresponsible with our fighters out there," Fara explained, "I haven't seen her go off like that in a long time."

"Will she calm down?" Krystal asked.

"Eventually, just let Miyu handle this, they've known each other longer."

"Alright," Wilson said.

"Well I better contact our employer to make sure the credits are transferred, see you later," as Fox said this, he left the hangar leaving Wilson alone in the room with Krystal.

"Well, looks like I'll need to retire Gladius now," Wilson said as he walked over to his ship and placed a hand reverently on it.

"I guess," Krystal said, seeing his disappointment.

--

Fay was really ticked that Wilson had gone against her judgement, at the moment she was in the gym, not having removed her flight vest, shirt, or pants, and was currently venting her frustration on a punching bag. She was normally not prone to do this but when someone did not take care of his or her fighter properly she had to cut loose on something without hurting anyone. She stopped and placed her hands on the punching bag as Miyu entered the room.

"All done, Fay?" the lynx asked her friend.

"I guess so," she said, "I'm still ticked but I'm calmer now." The spaniel stepped back from the punching bag and walked towards the door.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Miyu asked.

"I'm going to design a new fighter but I'll use the Gladius' body as the blueprint. I had a chance to observe Wilson's piloting style back when Fox got his skills tested at the Cornerian Military GHQ. I noticed that he prefers to use low speed evasion to high speed hit and run." Seeing her "engineering look" in Fay's eyes, Miyu just nodded and said.

"Well run it by Fox and Wilson, they would probably like the idea."

Miyu led Fay from the gym as she described the ship she was going to design.

"I'll give it higher powered weapons, lower its speed and remove it's lock on so I can give it better turning and stronger defences. I'll just keep the stinger missiles on and try to get more manufactured…"

--

Once Fay had run the idea by Fox and he decided that she should get the ship built she immediately contacted Space Dynamics and arranged to take some time to design the ship and start construction. Before they got underway to Coneria, Wilson decided to speak to Fox. The vulpine leader was standing on the command bridge and staring out the view screen, thinking over some things such as the report about Fay's outburst, when Wilson approached him.

"Fox," the team leader turned to look at Wilson.

"Yes, what is it, Wilson?" he asked.

"We've been in space for almost a year now, and I think that Fay's episode after the mission today proves that we all need a vacation." Fox blinked and thought over Wilson's statement for a moment before replying.

"I guess you're right, we could all use a break. Where were you thinking, Wilson?"

"Fichina, there's something I need to do there and I know somewhere that you could take Fara and Todd to relax; it will be springtime on the part of the planet where I want to go."

"Alright," Fox said, "after we place the order for your new fighter at Space Dynamics we'll head to Fichina for some R&R."

--

A week later the Great Fox was parked in high orbit around Fichina. Onboard in the launch bay, the entire Star Fox Team team, except for Wilson and Rob, stood near the shuttle. Krystal was wearing grey shorts and a white t-shirt along blue flip-flop sandals; she wore the platinum tiara with the blue sapphire back from when she flew with the team during the Aparoid invasion. Miyu was wearing a blue t-shirt, an olive drab cargo vest with loose shorts of the same colour. Fay was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a medium length skirt of the same colour and she had a pink bow tied on her left ear. Fox was wearing green pants, a pale grey t-shirt and black and grey sneakers. Fara was wearing blue jeans and black sandals. Fara held her and Fox's son, Todd, in her arms. Todd was dressed in a white shirt and grey shorts and periodically muttered baby talk.

Miyu tapped her foot somewhat impatiently, "Where is that crossbreed," her voice was irritable, "we've had our stuff loaded onto the shuttle for the last 15 minutes."

"Just be patient," Fara said as she passed her son to Fox, "I'm sure he'll be along in a moment." It was at that moment that Wilson chose to enter the docking bay. Everyone except for Todd gaped at his choice of dress. Wilson was wearing a loose shirt with closed sleeves that ended just before his wrists; covering his legs was an odd piece of clothing, it looked like he was just wearing a large cloth on the front and back of his legs with a slit on each side where each of his legs were. Underneath the cloth was a pair of what looked like a pair of black sweatpants; the outer layer of the clothing was all blue except that there were numerous 2cm thick silver bars all over the surface. The pattern of the silver lines was symmetrical on the front, the left and right sides were mirror images of one another, and had those gathered been able to see the back they would have noted that it had the exact same pattern as the front. He wore a pair of wooden sandals on his feet which made him stand about 4cm taller. He was carrying a suitcase, with the items he was bringing with him on this trip inside of it, in his right hand and he had his katana with the black sheath at his left side.

"OK, I'm ready." Wilson paused partway into the hangar and noticed at the gaping looks of his team mates and asked, "What is there something on my face?"

Fay shook her head and replied, "No, it's just…what's with the outfit?"

"Oh this," Wilson said, looking down as if realising how odd his style of dress was, "this is the clothing I wore when I was training here; I wear it whenever I come here, it helps me feel connected to my old home."

Accepting Wilson's explanation, everyone got onboard the shuttle. The crossbreed fox set his suitcase down with the others and sat down, thinking over a few things. Fara went to the cockpit, as Fox was still watching their son, and started up the shuttle's engine. Fara lifted the shuttle out of the Great Fox 3's docking bay and flew towards the planet.

The shuttle set down in a landing area on the outskirts of the city where they had booked the hotel rooms where they would be staying. A grey minivan, which Fara had ordered and paid for before they had departed, was waiting for them at the landing site. Fara took Todd in her arms while her husband, Wilson, Krystal, Fay, and Miyu unloaded all of the team's bags from the shuttle and loaded them into the minivan. When the loading was finished, Wilson spoke up.

"There's somewhere I have to go and if you want to come with me, you're welcome to."

"OK I'll come with you," Krystal said.

"We should go, Fara, it might be nice," Fox suggested.

"Alright, just let me get Todd's stroller," Fara said. The fennec gave her son to Fox, who set him down and watched him crawl around on the cement. Todd had not yet begun to walk on his own but he could pull himself into a standing position; the very young fox had yet to speak his first words and his parents hoped that this trip would allow them to spend time with him and maybe help him learn to walk and talk. Fara managed to get the stroller out and, with Fox's help, fastened her son into it.

"It's about a 20 minute walk, follow me," Wilson said, as he turned towards an unpopulated area and began to walk. Krystal, Fox, and Fara, who was pushing her 11-month old son in his stroller, followed him. Miyu waved them off and said.

"You go ahead and we'll sign in to the hotel."

"See you later," Fay called, waving to them as they walked away. The white cocker spaniel got into the driver seat while the lynx took the passenger side; Fay started the engine and they drove into the city.

--

Wilson led Krystal, Fox, Fara, and Todd through the countryside for about 20 minutes; they had to turn around a couple small hills, which had obscured their view when they were at the landing area. Finally, they arrived at a wooden fence with a tall square shaped wooden arch that acted as on opening. There was a sign on the top with several odd symbols written on it in red.

"What do those symbols mean, Wilson?" Fara asked.

"It's an older Fichinan language that was used before everyone spoke the same language in this system, it means something along the lines of, 'never give in without trying,' or something to that effect," the crossbreed fox explained. "Now just follow me, we're about to reach one of our destinations."

About a minute later, they were standing in front of a wooden house that, despite being well kept, looked as though it had been there for many years. Next to the house was a small shrine that looked large enough for two people to sit inside

"This place was my home after my parents were killed; my grandfather trained me and my friend here. The last time I was here was a month after the Aparoid invasion. I saw my friend here at that time and we fixed up the damage this place suffered from the invasion. That was the last time I saw him before we once again went our separate ways." Wilson stepped forwards and placed a hand reverently on the wall of the house.

"It's been so long since I've been here."

"Yes it has been a long time, hasn't it?" Everyone was surprised to hear the voice, which came from their right. They all turned to look at where the voice came from and Wilson was the first to speak up.

"I didn't expect you to be here on the same day as me, it's been a long time, Panther Caruso."

"Almost four years since we last saw each other or even spoke," Panther responded. Though none of them, Krystal in particular, were at all happy to see Panther, they were all quite surprised at his appearance. Panther was wearing the exact same clothing as Wilson except that the blue parts on Wilson's clothing were red on Panthers and the lines that were silver on Wilson's clothing were gold on Panthers. At his side, Panther had a sword attached to a sword belt similar to the one Wilson wore, except his sword was not a katana but rather a straight bladed long-sword. At that moment, Panther seemed to notice that Fox, Fara, Todd, and Krystal were there for the first time.

"Ah, I did not expect to see you here, Krystal and Fox, I assume by the child and his appearance that the fennec is McCloud's wife and the child his son." He turned to Wilson and asked, "Is that correct?"

"Yes it is. The fennec is Fara Phoenix-McCloud and the child is Fara and Fox's son, Todd."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Krystal almost shouted at Panther, "and how do you know Wilson so well?"

"Calm down, Krystal," Panther said, "I'm here for the same reason Wilson is, to pay some respects to our dead master."

Wilson turned to face the door of the house and spoke up, "follow us if you want but please be quiet inside, we'll explain later." With that, the two oddly dressed animals walked towards the small shrine.

Wilson opened the door to the shrine revealing a smaller, dresser like shrine sitting on a table inside. Panther placed a finger on tope of the shrine and swiped it across, picking up a fair amount of dust.

"It has been a long time since either of us was even here," the big cat stated.

"Yeah, not since after the Aparoid invasion," Wilson replied. Panther opened the smaller shrine and revealed that inside were several used candles and a picture of an older arctic fox that looked as though it had been damaged several times but still had held up. Wilson set about lighting the candles, three on each side of the picture and the two of them knelt down and stared at the picture for several moments.

While this was going on, Krystal asked Fox, "What are they doing?"

"I have no idea, but I'm guessing that picture is of Wilson's grandfather."

"That would make sense," Fara said, "I also think I know why Panther is here."

"We'll find out soon," Fox said.

After almost two minutes, Wilson and Panther stood up. Panther carefully blew out the candles and Wilson closed the small shrine.

Once the two were back outside Wilson began to explain.

"In case you haven't already figured it out, Panther is an old friend of mine. In fact he's the old friend who trained alongside me back when I was orphaned by Andross." Panther now spoke up.

"You see, back before I joined Star Wolf, I was living with my parents. We did a lot of travelling back then as my parents were interplanetary traders, and quite wealthy ones at that which led to me being home schooled and spoiled by them." Panther sighed. "They spoiled me because I never had a chance to make any real friends when I was younger, as we were constantly on the move. When I was 10 years old, we stopped on Fichina during one of our all too rare vacations. My parents, as part of my home schooling, always gave me a history lesson whenever we stopped for any length of time on a planet and it was then that I learned about how in the medieval time of our planets, this planet was home to some of the best warriors in the system; when I learned that three was still someone who was teaching those skill on the planet I immediately wanted to meet him and learn how to fight. My parents were only too willing to do that for me and shortly thereafter we found this place." Wilson took over at that point.

"Panther and his parents arrived on the day before my parent's left, the last day I saw them alive, and he demanded to be trained. I'll admit that I didn't exactly give them a warm welcome in fact I got into a fight with Panther almost immediately. Eventually my grandfather agreed to train Panther if he would stay with him over the summer months just like me and I was well…quite enraged that he would take on another student, keep in mind we were only 10 years old at the time. For the first little while we were almost always at each other's throats; we called each other insulting names, I called him a spoiled brat because he was used to getting what he wanted."

"And I called Wilson an explosive twit because he was so easy to anger; his grandfather wasn't too pleased with either of us because of that," Panther added.

"We never even tried to get along despite the fact that it was keeping us from training efficiently," Wilson continued, "but that all changed when the Lylat war began. We were, for all intents and purposes, stuck here while the war waged on. Because trade lines had closed Panther had lost contact with his parents and during the Lylat War, as I already told you, mine were killed. Panther attended my parent's funeral and that was the first time that we actually stayed in one place without fighting." Wilson hung his head, "It was a shame that it took that tragedy for us to actually start getting along and focus on our training but in the long run it helped us to become better warriors; Panther even watched me when I was learning magic and encouraged me despite the fact that he could not learn any magic himself." Panther then took over the explanation.

"We trained alongside each other for the entire time we were there and eventually we parted ways. The last time we were both here was just after the Aparoid invasion, after Star Wolf returned to the Lylat system and we helped to repair the damage this place had suffered because of it."

While Fara, Fox, and Krystal digested all of the information, both oddly dressed animals turned away from one another and began to walk in opposite directions. Mystified, Fox asked.

"What are you two doing?"

"Settling an old argument," Panther explained, "at the start of our training we often competed to see who was a better swordfighter, using these very swords that we carry right now."

"But our stamina was lower back then," Wilson added, "and we always exhausted each other before we could disarm our opponent, or make them bleed." Both the panther and the crossbred fox turned sharply back towards each other, standing about 12 meters apart from one another.

"By the time we finally were able to fight for long periods of time without tiring, our training schedule never gave us the time to duel and when we had time we were too tired to want to fight anymore."

"But today is the first time we have been here with our swords at the same time in a long time," Wilson drew his katana as he said this.

"So we will settle this now, once and for all," Panther also drew his sword as he spoke. Both combatants crouched and removed their wooden sandals, tossing them aside, They both then stood up, leaving their swords on the ground, and removed their outer layer of clothing, leaving them with only the long black pants they wore under the robe and white short-sleeved shirts. Tossing the garments aside, both men picked up their swords and held them in fighting stances, Wilson with both hands, and Panther in his right hand. Panther's sword was a straight bladed long sword with an ordinary looking blade that hand a 3/4 blood channel. The handle of Panther's sword was different, it was golden in colour and decorated with designs that boosted gripping power and both sides of the cross hilt ended in small curls up in the direction of the blade; there was only one adornment on the sword, a pale red pommel stone that was shaped like a rose, with its petals opening away from the rest of the weapon.

"This sword is why I made my symbol the red rose," Panther said, explaining this despite not having been questioned, "it's called 'The Rose Sword'"

"My Katana is called 'Yamato', my grandfather named my mother after this sword," Wilson said.

"The fight will go until one of us draws blood; we can be disarmed and reclaim our weapons as many times as we want and if one of us bleeds, we lose," Panther stated.

"Sounds fine to me," Wilson replied, "so shall we?"

"Yes, let's finish this today!" as Panther spoke that last word both combatants charged at each other and swung hard, their swords clashing together. For a moment they just stood, pressing their swords into one another's, then Panther spoke.

"You've gotten stronger."

"Same to you," Wilson replied. The two of them jumped backwards and then charged again, striking at each other multiple times. Both were very evenly matched and gave as well as they got, either blocking or dodging all of their opponent's attacks. The four observers, even Todd, were somewhat mesmerised by the skill both fighters were displaying as they were moving at quite a high speed. Krystal was surprised to see Panther fight like this, as she had never seen even a shred of evidence before today that he knew how to fight with a sword; though she was still a bit ticked at him she felt some of that dissipate and she realized that there was a lot more to the big cat than what she had found out.

The fight went on for about 4 minutes, during which neither of the combatants managed to even disarm each other.

"Those two have a lot of stamina," Fara observed.

"I can see that," Fox said, "who do you think will win, Krystal?"

"I can't really say. I can tell just by watching them that they aren't going to accept a draw in this fight, but they are tiring and this will end soon." The blue vixen's statement turned out to be correct.

A moment later, Wilson backed off and charged Panther, Yamato raised high. Panther saw this and pulled The Rose Sword back under his left arm. As soon as Wilson got close enough, he swung down hard with his Katana and Panther countered by swinging upwards and to his right at the sword. A moment later a loud clash sounded and Wilson's katana, Yamato, was knocked form his hands and flew 2 meters in the opposite direction of the spectators, landing blade first in the ground. Time seemed to hang still for a moment as Wilson stood behind Panther, having run past him after his attack.

"Looks like I win," Panther said, returning to a normal stance with his sword hanging down in his right hand.

"Nope, you only hit my sword, check the back of your left hand," Wilson smirked as he said this. Panther turned to face Wilson, a little confused, but before he could say anything he felt a slight sting on the back of his left hand. Surprised, he raised his hand so he could look at it and saw a small shallow cut on the back of his left hand; a very small amount of blood was seeping from the cut.

"Impressive but how did you…"

"You always countered downward slashes with that disarming technique of yours," as he spoke, Wilson moved over to his fallen sword and retrieved it, "but you always leave your left arm open to attack so that's where I hit you."

"I see."

A few minutes later all of them were inside sitting in the house's living room, which had a short coffee table, a three person couch, a loveseat, and an armchair. Both Panther's and Wilson's outer robes hung in the entryway which was where Todd's stroller also sat; it was where everyone's footwear had been removed and left. Panther had bandaged his wound from the first aid kit in the house's bathroom. Fox and Fara sat on the loveseat, with Fox holding Todd, Krystal sat alone on the right side of the couch and Wilson sat on the left, Panther sat in the armchair.

"This place looks like it's pretty well kept," Fox observed.

"Yeah, Panther and I come here occasionally to clean and make sure everything is in order. It's sort of a thank you to my grandfather," Wilson explained.

"Now, as long as we're here, we should catch up," Panther said this and then turned to Krystal. "Krystal, since it seems as though you have recovered from your depression I feel I can tell you now, back then a year ago, I was not cheating on you."

"What!" Krystal was shocked and extremely disbelieving, "but I saw you, you kissed that woman."

"Cheating, the last time we met I thought you said you gave up those old habits of yours," Wilson interjected. Panther smiled and replied.

"I did, you see it was when we were staying on Eladard…"

"The industrial planet," Fox interrupted, "but how did you even manage to stay put on a planet with that bounty on your heads."

"Let me explain, just promise you won't let anyone know that you know where Star Wolf might be staying."

"I guess it's the least we can do," Fara said.

"Good, now I shall explain. It was a year after the Anglar incident, Star Wolf was trying to find some place to rest, being chased by bounty hunters and the military is hard, and we just so happened to run across the industrial planet when it was under attack. Apparently some pirates were bombing the planet and wanted the inhabitants to turn the planet into their own personal fighter and carrier manufacturing plant. We couldn't stand their arrogance so we destroyed them and landed on the planet.

"When we landed, we received a surprising hero's welcome. Apparently the attacks we had stopped had been going on for quite some time before we arrived. The citizens were so grateful that they agreed to keep us safe from interplanetary police forces, the military, and bounty hunters while providing us a place to stay and store our fighters. In reality it was mostly thanks to Krystal that we were accepted as Wolf, Leon, and I weren't so kind at first but we did manage, with Krystal's help, to be nicer towards the people on the planet." Panther then turned to face Krystal and continued speaking.

"Krystal, you must realize that back then I was devoted to you, but I could see in your eyes that you still couldn't get over Fox, whether it was that you still cared about him or felt guilty for hurting him I didn't know, but I knew you had to confront him if you wanted to get on with your life. The year we were on Eladard, I was doing a lot of research with the help of a couple friends that I had made on the planet. I was researching how to block mental abilities such as mind reading so I could try and deceive you Krystal." Krystal tried to ask but Panther held up his right hand and continued.

"It took seven months and while I could not keep you from reading my mind, I did discover that if you were extremely emotionally stressed in some way that your ability to read thoughts might become inaccurate and I would be able to make you think I was being honest when I was lying or vice versa. That woman you saw me with was one of the friends who helped me find the information in fact the other one who helped me was her husband; they were the head librarians at the library that I did my research at.

"After hearing what I was trying to do and why I was trying to do it, they agreed to help me. I would go on pretend date with his wife and he would watch out for you in the same restaurant where we would eat. Personally I was afraid this would cause a rift in their marriage but fortunately, you got suspicious on the first night. I knew that if I broke up with you in some way that you would leave but since you could read minds, I had to do something that would prevent you from seeing that I didn't really want to leave you. That night, when you confronted me I put on a show of seeming disloyal so as to deceive your confused and stressed mind. I stayed up late and slept in so you wouldn't have a chance to figure out that I was still loyal to you. I knew that somehow you would find Fox and finally make peace with yourself."

"Actually," Krystal spoke up, "When I found Fox, he was with his wife, who was pregnant with their son who is sitting with them right now. I was shattered even more so than before but two weeks later, Wilson and Miyu, a newer member of Star Fox, helped me get over my past and start my life again."

"I see."

"Well that's enough sad talk," Wilson said, standing up, "Com'on, there's someplace I want to show all of you." While it took only a few moments for Krystal, Fara, and Fox to get outside, as Fara was now carrying Todd, Wilson and Panther took some time to get their robes back on and strap their swords back around their waists. The two old friends then led them around the back of the house, which sloped down into a small valley.

"Oh my!" Fara said.

"What are those?" Fox asked.

"They're beautiful," Krystal said.

"It looks like we came at just the right time," Wilson said. Below them, which was not too far down but enough that they could not have seen it from the front of the house, was a large field of trees with pink flowers blooming on them. The sight was quite breathtaking for Fara, Fox, and Krystal.

"They're called Sakura in an old Fichinan language, you would call them cherry blossoms," Panther explained.

"They only bloom like this once a year, we're lucky to be here when the time is right," Wilson said, "it's a nice place to spend with with family and/or your loved ones. Let's go." Wilson began to descend towards the trees in flower with Fox, and Fara, who was carrying Todd who's attention was still on the trees. Krystal was about to follow them when Panther spoke up.

"Krystal," the blue vixen stopped for a moment, "I know that you can probably still not forgive me for what I did but hear me out. I've known Wilson for a long time and he is a good person; I can tell that you have feelings for him but then again, you weren't very good at hiding your feelings."

"I guess when you live in a society where everyone knows how you are feeling at any time you just learn that hiding your feelings is pointless," Panther knew she was speaking of her home planet.

"Just make sure you give him a fair chance, he deserves it after what he's been throught."

"But what about you?" Krystal actually sounded concerned.

"If I find someone who's right for me, I'll let you know." Panther then began walking in a different direction than the others had. After a moment of waiting, Krystal moved to follow the others. About two minutes later she found herself amongst the shade of the cherry trees and staring around at the petals, some of which fell like snow. She spotted Fara, Fox, and Todd and went over to them.

"Hello, where's Wilson?" she asked.

"He went that way," Fox said, pointing off deeper into the trees. Krystal nodded a thank you and took off in the direction that Fox had indicated. When Krystal found Wilson, he was sitting under a tree that was standing on top of a small hill with a short cliff, no more than a couple meters, at its front. As she approached him, he spoke up.

"It's a nice view isn't." Krystal smiled and sat down next to him.

"Yes it is."

"I used to come here back during my training. My grandfather says this is where he met his wife for the first time and where my mother first brought my father when they met." This statement surprised Krystal.

"I see, does this place, bind people in your family together?"

"Perhaps, I never really gave it much thought. Panther sometimes came here to clear his head as well."

"I'd like to stay here with you a little while longer, before we go back," Wilson smiled and put his left arm around Krystal.

"I'd like that."

Krystal closed her eyes and thought to herself.

'_They're right, I have fallen in love with Wilson, but I'll just enjoy the moment for now confessions can come later. I can tell he cares about me but I won't read his mind, it would be like cheating in the game of love."_

Unbeknownst to the two of them, Panther was watching from a short distance away. The dark coloured cat smiled as he saw them under the spot where both he and Wilson went to think back when they were training.

"Those two really deserve each other. I'd better get back before the others start to think that I abandoned them." Panther turned and walked away through the trees leaving the soon to be couple alone.

--

Well that's it for this story, I know that it took me a long time but I had to really give myself the desire to keep writing this story. I know the ending has a lot of potential for a sequel but I find that after and even when I am writing the 5th chapter of a story these days, that I begin to lose interest and it takes me forever to get writing, this story and "Cardcaptor Bear" are perfect examples of this.

This story has changed a lot since I first conceived it. Originally, Wilson wasn't in the cast and the story would only be three chapters long. The first two chapters were always the same, with only some minor alterations such as the removal of some extra flashback scenes, which I may go back and add later if I feel like it, but the third would have sped up to Todd's birth, then have had Fara killed off through the use of some poisonous non-sentient animal (most likely a snake) which would allow Fox and Krystal to get back together. In fact even as I was writing the second chapter this was my intention however, some reviews (Fin in particular) and the fact that I began to feel that killing of Fara would just be wrong made me consider rewriting the story.

The next version did not include the "Devil May Cry 3" references, particularly what Miyu said in chapter 3, but did have Wilson join in a similar manner and I was planning on making an unresolved love triangle between Wilson, Krystal, and Miyu. But that fizzled rather quickly as I thought it was corny.

The third idea was almost identical to what I have now but was not as sympathetic to Panther as this version was. This version would have had Wilson and Panther (who used a Fencing Sabre rather than a long sword) essentially competing over Krystal, though it would be said that later Wilson did not think of it that way; this version lacked the base battle at the beginning that this version has. I had started writing the fourth chapter (in which Wilson never mentioned a friend during his story) when I read the story "Thierry" which showed Panther in a rather sympathetic light which convinced me that I should be kinder towards Panther's character and even give him a little background.

Even after I decided that I did not want Wilson and Panther to be enemies, I still wanted to put the Wilson vs. Panther sword fight in somewhere so after some serious brainstorming I decided to link Wilson and Panther's pasts together. Panther's sword is somewhat inspired the sword of Martin the Warrior from the Redwall series but I made the pommel stone rose shaped to explain why he always considers the red rose his symbol.

The battle scene in the base on Fortuna also got reworked a couple times. Originally I would have had an overly dramatic scene where Wilson and Krystal vaporised Vergil with charged blasts form either side in place of Wilson quickly killing him with several shots to the back. I then decided to scrap the power scenes and have then use a hail of gunfire to clear the hallway leading to the control room. I decided to use a mix of the two scenes in order to allow Wilson to save Krystal and provide a reason that he would be tired.

Before you review I would like to point out that I know that Wilson's "Hell's Crest" technique is a little over the top, but I must point out that Wilson is barely able to support himself after using it so I want you not to continuously point out that he seems too overly powerful; the technique is modeled and named after a technique used by Commander Margulis in the battle with him during "Xenosaga Episode I".

The fact that the General who hires the team is named Dante and the person he sends them to fight is name Vergil is another "Devil Mary Cry 3" reference as those are the names of the player's character and his primary enemy throughout the game respectively; the two are twin brothers and originally there would have been a sub plot which revealed they were related but I scrapped the idea as it would have take too much time and been completely unnecessary.

I am leaving the ending semi-open ended just in case I do decide to write a sequel or continue this, though if anyone wants to write their own sequel they are welcome as long as it isn't making fun of this story or try to alter Wilson's character too much.

I am happy with how this turned out considering how long it took, I am just glad that I was able to finish it before the end of this weekend.

So please review and tell me what you think but please no flames, I did not post this just so I could be flamed.


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